The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring
by TheGlobalFlower
Summary: Mikan is a VERY troublesome child, but her parents no matter how important they are have to send her to the school, yes Alice Academy.  And guess who has to look after her; none other than Natsume Hyuuga! And so the fun starts; for you and me, that is
1. The Begining

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

* * *

"Hello my Dears!" exclaimed a certain (more like the only) gay-like teacher.

No; he wasn't really gay, but the students who knew him found that harder and harder to believe by the day.

"Today I have serious news to discuss with everyone." A groan ensued from the class, the important thing would most likely be some new useless and annoying project; they all hated his activity ideas.

"We will be getting a new student tomorrow." Now the class was confused.

"You've never warned us about new students coming before."

"Yes but her case is different-"

"Her? And how is her case so special?"

"Yes 'her'. She is a special case since her powers are very unstable, since everyone is only allowed one partner, Natsume is the only one available," addressing him he said "You will be completely responsible for her, she has next to no control over her powers and they are extremely sensitive to her emotions, even upsetting her slightly could endanger the whole school, that is how powerful she is, and unfortunately you have to make sure that doesn't happen."

"I refuse! I'll take Ruka as a partner and Koko can take the new girl. He's the best one for it anyway."

Mr. Narumi cleared his throat, "Also your class supervisor has decided that doing this would be good training for both you and the new girl, who will naturally be joining the DA section."

"So I have no choice is that what you're saying."

"Unfortunately, yes; that is exactly what I'm saying. Also we don't want her parents to think we're belittling her, they might withdraw their funds or worse shut down the school! Now I have to rush children, be good."

"Oh yes Natsume, I advise that you to be around her 24x7, there have been over a thousand kidnap attempts. The MSP isn't sure if he can keep out the more powerful ones among her pursuers not when he is covering such a large area already."

"But even Persona can't get through the barrier!"

"I know." He said as a dark look entered his eyes "Well let's not talk of such dreary thing. Cheerio!" he waved as he exited the class, he seemed to remember something, "Oh yes Natsume, she's one of those very rare cases… Even though she is female, she shows active Hemophiliac mutations in her genes." With that he disappeared out the door before he suffered any severe burns.

Natsume did however, mange to burn of some of the frills on the teacher's shirt.

"Your new partner will be troublesome it seems"

"Hnn…"

"She must be important. I mean Koko's dad owns Central Town!"

"To think that her parents actually have the power to; and can shut down the school! Who is she?"

"Well Ruka," replied Natsume, "She'll probably be a stuck up snob like Cat Face over there."

* * *

҉҉ The Creator's Child҉҉

* * *

"Mummy I don't want to go!"

"Come on dear, Hotaru will be there and besides I don't want you to go either, but I know that this is the best for you, try and be strong."

"Okay, besides I haven't seen Hotaru for a long time." Mikan said, trying to smile for the mother.

"That's better. Your uncle will come and pick you up tomorrow now let's make this a memorable day shall we."

"Yes!" Mikan replied, this time her smile was real and it shone brighter that all the stars.

* * *

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

* * *

Everyone was outside; today was class 2A's 'Virtual Practice Day'. They were in charge of reinforcing the gates for practice, when they saw the HSP's private limo draw up. The class lined up to greet and salute him, when they heard a child's voice from inside the car. Koko could hear only one unanimous thought, 'Who is that?' it was his own thought too.

"Is this where you work uncle?"

"Yes my little princess, I am the High School Division's Principal."

"Will you be my principal?"

"I'm afraid not. There are three sections in this school, elementary, middle and high school divisions, you will be in elementary."

"I see," She paused the excitement seemed to drain from her face at the prospect of not knowing anyone in this large place. "Are the people here nice?"

"Of course, though there are some bad apples."

"I see."

"Well let's not talk of things that upset you," her uncle said as he started to feel the temperature drop in the car. "You'll start of as a two star and you can have a normal school experience. If things get out of hand, then you will be moved up to special star, which is the star level you should, in reality, have."

* * *

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

* * *

Just then the HSP noticed them.

The students gave a quick bow to him and stood to attention in front of him waiting for him to dismiss them as usual or give them some work. "Good evening Children, continue your work, Hyuuga don't slack of, social status does not affect work in this school."

"Oh? I heard the new student was getting very special treatment,"

"Indeed she is; only in terms of security."

"I see. So she is of a high social status as well." The HSP smiled

"Clever Hyuuga, well I must go now." Saying this he returned to the car and drove away.

"We forgot to ask who was in the car."

"He wouldn't have told us, he even blocked his mind!" Koko fumed, he hated not knowing something, and since it was a rare feeling for him, he hated it more.

"Oh well, It's time to go back to class,"

"Hotaru should be coming back tomorrow Ruka" Natsume said when the rest had gone ahead.

"What! How did you know?"

"The nurse told me; I forgot to tell you."

"Oh thanks Natsume," Ruka said, sounding relieved, glad that his crush was better. But Natsume saw something more.

"You know something don't you." It was a statement. Not a question.

Ruka just gave him a wary look and turned away.

* * *

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

End of Chapter one


	2. Precious Little Girl

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Precious Girl

* * *

"Hello my Dears!" exclaimed a certain (more like the only) gay-like teacher.

No; he wasn't really gay, but the students who knew him found that harder and harder to believe by the day.

"Today I have serious news to discuss with everyone." A groan ensued from the class, the important thing would most likely be some new useless and annoying project; they all hated his activity ideas.

"We will be getting a new student tomorrow." Now the class was confused.

"You've never warned us about new students coming before."

"Yes but her case is different-"

"Her? And how is her case so special?"

"Yes 'her'. She is a special case since her powers are very unstable, since everyone is only allowed one partner, Natsume is the only one available," addressing him he said "You will be completely responsible for her, she has next to no control over her powers and they are extremely sensitive to her emotions, even upsetting her slightly could endanger the whole school, that is how powerful she is, and unfortunately you have to make sure that doesn't happen."

"I refuse! I'll take Ruka as a partner and Koko can take the new girl. He's the best one for it anyway."

Mr. Narumi cleared his throat, "Also your class supervisor has decided that doing this would be good training for both you and the new girl, who will naturally be joining the DA section."

"So I have no choice is that what you're saying."

"Unfortunately, yes; that is exactly what I'm saying. Also we don't want her parents to think we're belittling her, they might withdraw their funds or worse shut down the school! Now I have to rush children, be good."

"Oh yes Natsume, I advise that you to be around her 24x7, there have been over a thousand kidnap attempts. The MSP isn't sure if he can keep out the more powerful ones among her pursuers not when he is covering such a large area already."

"But even Persona can't get through the barrier!"

"I know." He said as a dark look entered his eyes "Well let's not talk of such dreary thing. Cheerio!" he waved as he exited the class, he seemed to remember something, "Oh yes Natsume, she's one of those very rare cases… Even though she is female, she shows active Hemophiliac mutations in her genes." With that he disappeared out the door before he suffered any severe burns.

Natsume did however, mange to burn of some of the frills on the teacher's shirt.

"Your new partner will be troublesome it seems"

"Hnn…"

"She must be important. I mean Koko's dad owns Central Town!"

"To think that her parents actually have the power to; and can shut down the school! Who is she?"

"Well Ruka," replied Natsume, "She'll probably be a stuck up snob like Cat Face over there."

* * *

҉҉ The Creator's Child҉҉

* * *

"Mummy I don't want to go!"

"Come on dear, Hotaru will be there and besides I don't want you to go either, but I know that this is the best for you, try and be strong."

"Okay, besides I haven't seen Hotaru for a long time." Mikan said, trying to smile for the mother.

"That's better. Your uncle will come and pick you up tomorrow now let's make this a memorable day shall we."

"Yes!" Mikan replied, this time her smile was real and it shone brighter that all the stars.

* * *

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

* * *

Everyone was outside; today was class 2A's 'Virtual Practice Day'. They were in charge of reinforcing the gates for practice, when they saw the HSP's private limo draw up. The class lined up to greet and salute him, when they heard a child's voice from inside the car. Koko could hear only one unanimous thought, 'Who is that?' it was his own thought too.

"Is this where you work uncle?"

"Yes my little princess, I am the High School Division's Principal."

"Will you be my principal?"

"I'm afraid not. There are three sections in this school, elementary, middle and high school divisions, you will be in elementary."

"I see," She paused the excitement seemed to drain from her face at the prospect of not knowing anyone in this large place. "Are the people here nice?"

"Of course, though there are some bad apples."

"I see."

"Well let's not talk of things that upset you," her uncle said as he started to feel the temperature drop in the car. "You'll start of as a two star and you can have a normal school experience. If things get out of hand, then you will be moved up to special star, which is the star level you should, in reality, have."

* * *

҉҉ The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

* * *

Just then the HSP noticed them.

The students gave a quick bow to him and stood to attention in front of him waiting for him to dismiss them as usual or give them some work. "Good evening Children, continue your work, Hyuuga don't slack of, social status does not affect work in this school."

"Oh? I heard the new student was getting very special treatment,"

"Indeed she is; only in terms of security."

"I see. So she is of a high social status as well." The HSP smiled

"Clever Hyuuga, well I must go now." Saying this he returned to the car and drove away.

"We forgot to ask who was in the car."

"He wouldn't have told us, he even blocked his mind!" Koko fumed, he hated not knowing something, and since it was a rare feeling for him, he hated it more.

"Oh well, It's time to go back to class,"

"Hotaru should be coming back tomorrow Ruka" Natsume said when the rest had gone ahead.

"What! How did you know?"

"The nurse told me; I forgot to tell you."

"Oh thanks Natsume," Ruka said, sounding relieved, glad that his crush was better. But Natsume saw something more.

"You know something don't you." It was a statement. Not a question.

Ruka just gave him a wary look and turned away.

* * *

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

End of Chapter one


	3. Trust

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Trust

"Hello all!" their gay home room teacher exclaimed, he certainly he was happy today; you could literally see the hearts surrounding him. Hopefully he wasn't planning something embarrassing for them Natsume was even more on edge than usual. Ruka was missing as he'd gone to pick up Hotaru from the hospital wing.

"Today we'll be welcoming our new student." (Enter Mikan) Everyone in the class stared to murmur.

"Hello everyone I'm Mikan Sakura. Age nine and I will be joining your class from today." Natsume looked up at this, she didn't seem spoilt; that should make things easier for him, no much though.

"Well everyone please make her comfortable. Mikan you have to sit with your partner Prince Natsume, he's over there, in that corner."

"He's my partner? I didn't know he studied here too." At this Natsume looked at the girl's face and groaned (internally), he should have realized who it was before, but that didn't do anything but make things worse.

"How dare you speak of MY Natsume like that?"

"Oh yes and I forgot! That's Lady Sumire, you wouldn't have met her."

"That's right, I'm too important for the likes of you to meet!" Sumire's voice was loud and it irked Natsume.

"More like you're too useless to meet her." Natsume retorted, with that he walked up to the girl, bowed and kissed her hand, before leading her to her seat. He did it mostly to spite Sumire, but if he hadn't done it, it might have caused trouble, Mikan wasn't the typical complain box, but she was naive, and she might let it slip in a letter or something, and her parents were extremely over-protective of her; heck they gave the phrase a new meaning, they took it to a whole new level.

He'd often pitied her at first, but then he'd realized that it was all she had ever known, so she wouldn't mind. That was a very good thing.

He smiled as he watched the Lady Sumire sulk with her black hair covering her eyes, she would want revenge, but he could handle her easily, she wasn't capable.

"Thanks Natsume" Mikan said smiling "I didn't know you could be so courteous!"

"Hnn." was all she got as an answer.

"Wonderful, no one has any question!" within seconds; hands went up. Narumi sighed and surrendered to the endless flow of questions.

"She is in the Special Ability Class… as of now; and her Alice is Nullification. She is also Hemophiliac, so be careful around her. Now I have a meeting, good day! Oh yes Miss Serina will be substituting for me."

The whole class groaned. She was the only teacher they couldn't push around. Chuckling Mr. 'Gay' left the class.

"Humph! That newbie!" said certain extremely pissed off young lady who was for the moment forgetting all her lessons in manner and etiquette. She wanted revenge. "I'll get back at her! Honestly to make my Prince Natsume act like that! Besides, other than Natsume's family my family is the most influential in the Hyuuga Kingdom. See how she survives my wrath."

An evil plan started to form in her mind, one (unknown to her of course) that would make Natsume eat his words.

Just then the door opened, revealing Hotaru and Mikan's older brother. She typically got up and charged toward her. She never did learn.

"-" Bang.

"Baka"

"Hotaru!" Mikan screamed completely unfazed "How are you I haven't seen you in such a long time! How many new inventions have you completed?" If it had been any one else they would have been repeatedly shot by the 'Baka' gun, but Hotaru was actually happy to see Mikan after so long. After entering the academy you are not allowed to leave until you are 18.

Mikan had only gotten out of entering the academy because she was the daughter of higher royalty. The Hyuugas were only given their kingdom since it would be difficult for the Sakuras to control such a large territory, they were lesser high royalty, though no one actually used the terms; however the Sakura and Hyuuga rulers remained firm friends.

Hotaru's older brother turned to Natsume. "I see you are her new charge. Hum... undormant vampire very suitable"

"How did you know" asked Natsume stiffening.

"As royal doctor, it is my job to know" he retorted, pushing his glasses up on his nose, Natsume narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Well I will be leaving now. I have work that needs attending to." With that he neatly exited the class.

"Oi, little girl! Go get changed we have P.A.T. next"

"Huh? Pat? What's that?"

"P-A-T; NOT 'pat'. Physical Alice-usage Training" corrected Hotaru; adhering to her chronic habit.

"It's where you train to gain stamina, so you can use your Alice better, Persona usually takes it, but he's not here so I'll be taking over."

"Oh Okay, but why isn't it PAUT?"

"Uh... I guess it doesn't sound as good..."

"Yea h P.A.T. has a ring to it!" said Koko

"Right, let me show you the changing rooms Mikan, I'm Anna and this is Nonoko. I have the chemistry Alice. "

"Thanks I'd appreciate that" replied Mikan, thanking her dad for the social training he put her through; she could tell that this girl was the daughter of a higher up. Of course, she would never admit this to him, she was too stubborn. Mikan was a shy girl, but if you got her angry you'd never hear the end of it. Ask Natsume for example, his visits always ended in disaster because of his nasty habit of ticking her off.

҉҉ The Creator's Child ҉҉

This is the Ground, we usually use this place for training, but it's also used for special occasions. That's why we won't be having P.A.T. after this and it's probably also why Persona isn't here." Explained Anna

"What do you mean there's no special occasion coming up is there?"

"No, but the Sakura Royalty will be visiting." Answered Nonoko

"Yeah that means I get to see them again!" exclaimed Mikan, literally jumping with joy. Just then Natsume's voice rang out over the field.

"Pair up with your partners and do ten rounds of the usual route, let you have to do an extra round each time you go of the other's hand, Time limit is 20 minutes."

"Okay Mikan we have to go now, be careful."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You're with Natsume right."

"Oh ..."

"Well cya later!"

"Hey! Little Girl! Hurry up will you"

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Be a little patient, honestly" she hollered as she ran toward Natsume, Leaving behind a curing Sumire who vowed to get her back for insulting Natsume.

҉҉.The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

The girl was a royal pain; she kept on falling, luckily he was her partner or the R (round) count would have gone way over 100. He hadn't let go of her hand once, and he refused to, he wasn't going to do extra rounds.

Thankfully this was the last round. He was glad he switched routes with Ruka and Hotaru; if this had been his normal route then he didn't want to know what it would have been like.

"Please Natsume can we stop, just for a while, please!" Natsume looked at her, he saw that she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, so he agreed to her request, not only that, it would be a good chance to check out the odd activity he'd been sensing in the woods. He sent out his hearing presence into the woods, persona had taught him how to make 'presences' out of his sense, though he would rather die than admit it, in came in very had in many ways, like when he needed a distraction, or when needed to spy on someone or something. Suddenly all was still, even Mikan looked up, the wood was dead still; and not a single shuffle could be heard among the farthest trees. Something was very wrong. He sided with his better judgment over his instinct, and sprinted the rest of the way, dragging Mikan along as if she were a mere bag, caring her over his shoulder, being careful of course, not to let go of her hand. Dumping her on the grass as they reached the field, he strode over to where Koko was standing. "I want you to read the woods for me."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

҉҉ The Creator's Child ҉҉

Meanwhile, Mikan had been trying to find Hotaru or Anna or even Nonoko (who didn't talk much) to keep her company, she didn't like being all alone in a new place. Excruciating pain hit her arm, she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything but to let herself fall. "Natsume..." Her feeble attempt to call out however was heard by no one but the grass of the lawn which was inching closer by the second. What a good listener the grass is.

҉҉.The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Natsume was deep in thought about the disturbances in the wood, or to be more precise, the lack of disturbances in the woods; it was highly unnatural, the way it was acting now,

"Umm Hey Natsume-"

"Shut it Koko"

"Hey-"

"I said Shut it!"

"Oi! You better listen or that wonderful charge of yours is gonna die soon."

"WHF where is she now and what happened"

"I can't tell for sure and the people around her haven't noticed, from her thoughts I think she was hit by a bullet..." He didn't get much else in; Natsume had already dashed off to where Koko had been pointing. He arrived just in time to prevent Mikan falling face down onto the grass. His eyes widened at her wound. This was going to be tough; and _painful_; for both of them. He cursed himself for leaving her alone. Especially after he NOTICED the oddities in the woods, he still didn't watch her. He was so stupid! He had relied too much on the MSP's barrier, they had somehow managed to pass that and everything else was in the bag after that, because of his carelessness.

"Hey we all thought the barrier would have been enough," said Koko hearing his thoughts.

"I was warned this would happen. And I still didn't take precautions. Even after I noticed the woods were acting up!" his friends new better than to try comforting him then. A large crowd had gathered around them, just then a loud gunshot was heard through the murmuring. Almost instantly a gangway opened through the mass of bodies, revealing a fuming Hotaru. Her face paled when she saw Mikan's state.

"You can lecture me later, just help me."

"And why should I?"

"FINE! I'll pay you she doesn't have much time, she Haemophiliac!" Hotaru's eyes widened father still.

"When did she develop that?"

"How the hell would I know damn it, just help me get the freaking bullet out!" Face still pale Hotaru nodded.

҉҉ The Creator's Child ҉҉

It was so painful; she wished she had never woken up, she could faintly hear voices. She was losing blood. If she lost any more, she knew it would be fatal.

Suddenly someone grabbed her upper arm tightly, she gasped, slowly the pain eased and she could relax a little. "Go on." She could tell this was Natsume. She felt fingers touch her arm, they were hesitant, and it hurt! It hurt so much! "Go on! You're just hurting her more!" Mikan waited for the pain to come, but it came so suddenly and sharply; she hadn't been prepared for the magnitude of the pain.

Silently tear began to fall down her cheeks, leaving salt trails to mark her innocent face. The pain finally eased, but it almost as soon as it did, the wound started burning; and then it was as if her skin was slowly burning of... This was Natsume; amidst the pain she could feel his cool tongue. Why was he licking her...

With a jolt she remembered that Natsume was an R-W or re-woken vampire, of the 3rd level. His teeth had a poison that he could control, which would make you bleed much worse than hemophilia could; but his saliva was the best medicine in existence. Slowly the giddiness left her, she could feel his arms around her.

She didn't know why, but she felt safer had she had ever before. The pain was receding too. She felt safe, she _was _safe. Natsume would always protect her, she just knew it. Her tears slowly stopped, and despite the pain she was in, she let out a content sigh and gave herself up to Natsume, to protect and heal.

҉҉.The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Natsume was very worried, he had felt this emotion only once before; it had been so long ago that he had forgotten the sensation, from then on he had learnt not to let his life get out of hand, but now he had messed up, and it wasn't a good feeling.

Worry was eating away at his stomach. He had been licking that part for ages, the girls around were cursing Mikan, he swore someone had a wishing Alice, cause it was working, Mikan had been almost completely still for about a whole ten minutes now, and she was crying.

Slowly he felt her relaxing. She stopped crying, he could tell because he stopped feeling the tears dripping onto his shirt. After a few more minutes she did the strangest thing, she sighed, and she seemed content.

Natsume's mind went into over drive, was she dreaming... impossible she was in too much pain. Could she be remembering the last time this happened, very unlikely...? Was she feeling safe in his arms... he felt his heart flutter at this thought... Suddenly he heard a laugh. It was Koko, the bastard had been in his mind again. He was going to kill him in the most painful way imaginable. Suddenly he tasted salt, he realized that most of the skin had grown back, he would have to pay attention now, his saliva could be harmful in excess.

After a minute or two he felt all the skin come back, he raised his head, ignoring the noise around him, he picked Mikan up, jumped over every ones heads and carried her to the infirmary.

҉҉.The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Natsume had taken the bullet to the HSP. He had realized immediately it was no ordinary bullet. It had been a rare Alice Stone.

_"You were right to come to me." The HSP stated, "and you were right about the bullet, it is indeed a very rare Alice stone, the breaking Alice. It's not like the nullification Alice, it doesn't nullify the Alice, but it breaks it. Because of this, it only effects barriers ... and seals."_

_"So you think Mikan has a seal on her?"_

_"If she did it would be long gone, but she has none that I know of, we will ask her parents on their yearly visit, I don't want to risk communication now. You should keep this to yourself for now. " _

_"Understood"_

_"Good. You may leave ."_

He still remember that conversation. He would have to be extra careful now, he would not let her get hurt, even if it meant sticking to her like a burr, he would; whether she liked it or not.

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

End of Chapter Two


	4. The King of Alms

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

҉҉_**. King of Alms ҉҉.**_

Mikan rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked at the sleeping figure next to her. The stubborn Natsume had refused to let her sleep alone, or let her do anything alone for that matter; he had turned into some kind of shadow.

She had been discharged from the school infirmary a few days ago, and had really been looking forward to sleeping in the bed she was used to, but who had to come and spoil it all. Natsume Hyuuga the Awful.

He had insisted on sleeping in her room, and no one could dissuade him, his pride had been mortally wounded already because he allowed Mikan to get hurt, not only that, he felt another profound, more essential need to protect her, not that he was telling anyone.

In protest Mr. Narumi had refused to give him a sleeping bag; and being the kind and insightful person she was, she had let him share the bed with her; and his gratitude: making a perverted comment about her falling for him.

Honestly she could have kicked him through the wall for that, but she didn't. This had been keeping up for almost a week now, and Mikan had never slept so well before, she kept on convincing herself that she just though that because she had been really tired, and that it had absolutely nothing to do with Natsume's presence.

She drowsily made her way to the washroom, bathed and changed into her uniform. She was so absent minded that she forgot to shampoo, because of this she ended up hitting her head on her way out of the shower cubical, this at least shook her out of her trance. She had a very bad feeling about today.

She made her way to the basin wondering about the feeling. Putting **way** too much toothpaste on the brush, she started to viciously attack her teeth, get toothpaste all over her face; yet she was too deep in thought to even feel the pain; she could be such an absent minded girl sometimes...

She managed to dress properly, and made her way out of the bathroom, to wake Natsume up. She knew from experience that he took less than 55 second to get ready (when he wanted to that is); she had counted. After she woke him, he immediately went to the bathroom to get ready. All of this seemed to be a dream to her, she was **still **pondering over her bad feeling.

She only woke properly from her trance, when Hotaru the Great hit Mikan with her new and improved Baka Gun 3.42. (I pity Mikan even though I'm the one writing this; but you just can't take Hotaru without her gun can you...)

She also greeted Anna and Nonoko. They asked if something was wrong, she just gave them a happy smile, too happy a smile, and said she was okay, they bought the story for the time being, but decided to ask her about it when she was feeling better.

She greeted Hotaru just as usual, and went to her seat. Natsume joined her after greeting his respective friends, even he noticed something was off since he actually let Mikan sit by the window; in the seat he, without fail, would occupy.

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Narumi sensei entered as usual. Today he said there was another new student. Mikan didn't like her at all.

"My name is Luna Koizumi." Muttering broke out. "My father is the Lord of one of the most important lands in the Sakura kingdom. I am also Natsume Hyuuga's future fiancé as he would never accept the Sakura royalty's brat since she is a klutz and an idiot." Eyebrows shot up at this. Sumire didn't even contest this, she probably believed the new girl. Natsume sniggered as Mikan fumed. "Well she does have a point about you being a klutz." To Koizumi he stood up and said "Are you dreaming? Because FYI you are not even on the list of candidates for my future wife, there's only one person on it. And don't you dare ever call the Sakura royalty's daughter a brat or an idiot in front of me, or I won't be responsible for my actions." Saying this he promptly sat down. Mikan's heart swelled at his words, and Koizumi went to her allotted seat next to Permy thoroughly embarrassed.

The other unusual thing was that Narumi sensei actually started teaching in the first period instead of rushing off to some meeting like he did every day. It was maths and they were doing matrices. It was Mikan's favourite topic. She tried her best to focus, but the nagging feeling refused to leave. The second period was also maths, so they continued. The 3rd and 4th periods were Jinno sensei's periods, but he was busy, so they were free periods. Then there came the first break. Mikan just stayed inside the whole time, she did however move to the cafeteria with her friend, so Natsume could sit with his.

҉ ҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Natsume immediately asked Koko to read Mikan's mind as soon as the break started.

"Well man all I can tell you is that she has a very bad feeling about something and she's scared... because she had a very good premonitions, apparently a few years ago, she had a feeling almost as bad as this, and was officially having the worst day of her life; that was the day Natsume got kidnapped and almost killed. She's really worried." Koko paused, he had read something else, and he started grinning like a monkey, Natsume raised an eyebrow. But Koko had his obstinate look, a look he wore when he wouldn't tell anyone something no matter what. Koko was excellent at keeping secrets, after all he needed to be, he knew every ones secrets; and there were very few exceptions. "At least that's what Mikan's thinking right now;" he continued.

Luna was busy being fawned over by all the boys. She was really slutty, but the older guys didn't care. She only let the more powerful ones get close to her and Sumire who had sucked up to her and tagged along, showing nothing but awe for the new girl.

Most guys in the class didn't like her though. They saw her for what she was, A power thirsty slut.

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Next was biology, Ms. Serena. She was 3.24 minutes late which was usual, every day she would come five minutes later than the start of class, without fail. She distributed the book; which she had taken for correction. She finished taking up the research work, and started with the mammary gland, very uncomfortable… very, _very_, _**very**_ uncomfortable.

"Mammary glands are present in both males and females, but in male they do not develop properly." The guys stared at the girls...

"In the womb for the first 14 weeks the fetus develops in the same way, regardless of gender. It has only one genital fold." Twitching eyebrows from all females in the room; including the teacher. She really didn't want to teach this, curse her bad luck...

"The mammary gland relies on estrogen to develop and function, when the thymus stops functioning the mammary glands start to develop in females." All the guys were grinning now, all looking at their respective crush. Ms. Serina finally burst well not finally, she would usually last much longer but with this topic... she still had to finish the whole reproductive system... She thought of asking the MSP if she could take the guys and girls separately, but she realized that with the girls here, the guys had to behave, but alone... it would be WAY worse than hell! She was woken out of her revere by a knock on the door, which she had firmly locked; she didn't want any one walking in on THIS lesson. She opened the door to find a messenger from the head office. Ms. Serina admitted him, so he could make the announcement himself.

"Requesting both the high royalty in this class to accompany me to the infirmary." Luna immediately jumped up thinking he meant her as well as Natsume, in the tiny fact-book that was her brain, she, Sumire and Natsume were the only royalty in the room, and Luna's ranking was higher that Sumire's so she was the only one the messenger could be addressing; everyone thought so.

"We don't need you, Land-Queens." (A nickname for the, lower royalty, the lords and ladies who look after land allotted to them according to their Alice. The slot which Luna and Sumire fit in). "Come on Mikan, let's get outta here." Said Natsume.

Mikan stood up wordlessly with a stricken look on her face. She was worried, very worried.

҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

They had been rushed to the academy's own hospital; it was the best in all of Pangaea. Currently they were in the waiting room. Natsume, much to his pleasure held Mikan in his arms. But he was still in denial, he would be for a long time, they both would be... Mikan was sobbing lightly into his chest, he felt the need to protect her, and he would.

It had been fifteen minutes since they had come in, suddenly Mikan's mother came in with a pile of paper work in her hands. "Oh hello dears... I was just completing the paper work..."

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"Mommy! What happened" Mikan cried looking up from my shirt, still gripping it tight, I had stopped stroking her hair when her mother came and I missed the silky feel of it... Mikan sniffed and went to hug her mother as soon as queen Yuka had put down her papers, the loss of her heat was sudden it slightly shocked me, I had gotten used to it, and it felt so good...

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While Natsume mentally kicked himself, Queen Yuka comforted her daughter, or tried to, what didn't fail to attract the Queen's attention was that Mikan was calmest in Natsume's arms.

Just then the doctor came out of the room, seeing Mikan in such a state, he paused. He gave the Queen a meaning full look, which Mikan of course failed to notice, she was too busy crying. Queen Yuka skillfully extracted herself from Mikan's death lock, and followed to Doctor inside the room, "Look after her" was all the Queen could say, she feared the worst. Natsume could tell by her eyes, she could seem emotionless when she wanted to, but other she was an open book, just like her daughter. Natsume only nodded.

Mikan had cried all the tears of worry that she could cry, so she simply wrapped her arms around Natsume's waist and buried her face in his muscled chest. Natsume shifted slightly in the seat so they were both comfortable.

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"I'm sorry milady" the doctor said with a thin covering of water on his eyes getting thicker every word he said. "There's no way we can save him now," Yuka looked as if she would have a heart attack. "I'm sorry milady, I have failed, I will accept capital punishment," the doctor said, a thin streaks of water running down his check. Not for fear of his life, but for his failure to save the beloved King. "What d' you think I am-" cried the Queen, "-Some kind of dictator! Do not insult me! No you all shall receive-" The doctor waited in fear. "The best rewards I can give you and your family. You tried to save him, that is enough. If he was too far gone it is not your fault." She sounded comforting, but there was a shake in her voice. She too had tears spilling over her beautiful eyes down her tender, flushed cheeks. "My daughter is outside, break it to her genteelly, I cannot face her now. Also tell the front office we must cancel our annual visit, after this..."

"Don't worry milady, we will break it to your daughter as genteelly as possible."

"Sir!" came the sudden cry from the monitoring doctor. "His heart it's almost stopped! And he's muttering something."

"Yuka... Yuka-"

"I here, my dear I'm right beside you even Mikan's here!" His heartbroken wife cried, letting her tears fall onto her husband's hand.

"Don't cry Yuka, I love you. I love you both." His breath started coming in rasps, his heart rate suddenly increasing and decreasing, his Alice use rate had gone sky high; he was using it unconsciously to try and save himself. Suddenly all was still; the invading Alice had won, with a sudden burst of power... You could see the black on the great king's neck. Almost everyone was crying, from the most cold-hearted to the cry-babies, tears streamed down the cheeks of everyone in the room, and soon, the cheeks of every human in the world would be wet. Tears would reign today, and many days; even months to come. Yuka fell to her knees and immediately teleported out of the school, being the only one with such ability. She needed the comfort of solitude. Outside a heart wrenching wail was heard. It echoed through the whole school, lifting every ones' heads.

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Natsume's heart stopped when he heard Mikan wail, he never thought that such a lively girl could ever hold such sorrow in her heart, her breath was coming in rasps sobs racking her entire frame, Natsume hugged her tightly, trying to give her what comfort his presence could. She stayed there for a few minutes, taking in his warmth, but then she wrenched herself away, seeking solitude, like her mother. Natsume ran after her, to the sakura tree. It was as if even the tree was mourning. Devoid of any blossom, even though it was not the season for them to be in bloom, everything seemed to be mourning, that was the importance of the late king's place in the world.

҉҉ The Creator's Child҉҉

_This sucked; it was hell! Go away sadness. Father wouldn't want me to be so sad… But I can't help it!_

Now she truly understood the meaning of the saying. She was powerless. Utterly pitiful.

_"Don't say that Mikan you know it's not true."_ Said half her conscience; trying to comfort her. While the other half argued against it showing no mercy. _"Right I __**don't**__ know it's true, I can nullify. What use is that huh? Can I nullify that my father's dead? Noooo! I nullify the fact that no one understands the depth of my sadness! Pfft! These tears show nothing!"_ Mikan was torturing herself with words.

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The whole school was silent. Suddenly an overpowering emotion enveloped all minds. It was suffocating, such sorrow, no one could have ever felt in their lives; if not for this experience that is. Tears streamed down every cheek, only one boy's face was left unconcerned, but his face was wet enough with sweat, struggling to reach his destination. Koko doubled over with the mental pain. He received his own share of sorrow, which resulted in him losing control of his Alice, now he felt the sorrow given to every living thing on the extensive campus. Including the support staff, that was more than ten thousand people... and that was excluding several thousand animals. His mind soon turned blank. It was better that way. Before he received his respite, he managed to speak to Miss Serina "It's not an invasion!" he cried to the teacher, who was surviving only because of her special training, "It's only Mikan. She lost control of her Alice, we're feeling what she is feeling right now-"that was all he managed to say before he lost consciousness, but it was enough.

Natsume's face was beaded with sweat. He had an idea that this feeling was because of Mikan losing control of her Alice, and he did not know if he could snap her out of it. He sure hoped so, he might have been able to hold on, because of the vigorous training, that only he had received so far. Others would not be able to hold on even a minute longer. He could see Mikan standing under the sakura tree, sobbing. With a final effort Natsume reached her, he didn't bother to stop himself from running into her, he just rushed her and gathered her into his arms; hugging her from behind, burring his face in her soft hair, taking comfort in its feel, while he willed his touch to comfort Mikan, just as her touch was comforting him.

҉҉.The Creator's Child҉҉

Out of the blue she felt someone bang into her; strong arms around her waist, holding her, anchoring her to the world. "Natsume!" She managed to whisper.

All the pent up resentment flowed out of her; it becomes grief; purely arduous grief. She was so glad he came.

He kept his promise; he said he would always protect her, and he had. She felt so free all of a sudden; despite the grief; in his arms she seemed to be uplifted.

_Jeez I really think I've fallen for him._

That was her last thought, before she too sank in to the respite of sleep and solitude.

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.

"We will be taking her now. She has calmed down enough." Natsume lifted his head from its previous cushion, and look at Imai who was now standing behind him. He didn't want to let her go but he knew it was for the best. He swept her up in his arms, and deposited her reluctantly into Imai's. "You better take better care of her than you did of her father; Doctor Imai." He said his voice full of scorn. "Make sure you inform the class of-" Imai paused, "Of the most recent developments."He called after him. Natsume walked away without looking back. He made his way back to the class room, it was only then that he allowed the latest events to sink in and truly have an effect on him. He could barely hold back his tears King Yukihara had also been like a second father to him too. Losing such a person... He _did_ know Mikan's pain because she had made sure that they all felt it. Whether she meant to do so or not…

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Natsume slid open the door to reveal expecting faces. He just stood there. Koko, who was conscious, but still not in complete control of his Alice, read Natsume's mind. His Alice was more of a curse than a blessing. "No! It can't be, please say I read your mind wrong! Please!" Natsume couldn't take it anymore. Koko collapsed back into is seat dazed and stricken.

Natsume, unable to control his tears any longer, turned and punched the wall repeatedly, with his hand causing it to crack. "Natsume!" cried Miss Serina mirroring the class' expressions of worry. Finally Natsume turned and faced the people in the class.

They were shocked to see tears in his eyes. Slowly he started speaking, Letting the information sink in for himself and the whole class, "The great king of alms-" he stopped trying to hold back a sob, unsuccessfully. "King Yukihara-" he stopped again, taking a deep breath to calm himself and deliver his message. "His Majesty King Yukihara, has passed from this world, and found his throne in heaven."

Having fulfilled his duty, he ran out of the class to his sakura tree, where he too sought the comfort of solitude, just as so many others had before him on this, fateful day.

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End of Chapter Three


	5. The Poor Girl

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

The Poor Girl

Thin beams of sunlight stole into the room. Mikan blinked as the offending beams hit her delicate eyes, waking her. Her first thought was that something was missing, but it was soon replaced by panic.

"I'M GONNA BE LATE" her scream induced the same panic in the birds as they flew away in anticipation of an enemy. A nurse came rushing in to see what the problem was. Only then did Mikan look at her surroundings. (Idiot… as usual)

"Mikan-hime!" (That's some of the little Japanese I do know. Face it 'Mikan-hime' sounds way better than 'Princess Mikan') "What's the matter?"

"Where am I?" said a rather dazed Mikan. "Don't I have classes?"

"Idiotic as usual polka;" said a voice from the window. "You're stuck here for another two days. Probably…"

"Not again!" she wailed "Wait what's with the name polka?" Natsume rolled his eyes and waited.

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"NATSUME YOU FRIGNIN' PERVERT!"

"Language polka." He said. "Besides, it's not my fault; you were practically showing me while I was carrying you."

"You can't blame me! I was unconscious then."

"Exactly so you can't blame me."

"What! You're the only one I _SHOULD_ blame!"

"Your loss." There was silence for a while. "Any way polka dots rest up. You've been asleep for more than eleven days now. I don't want you fainting on me." Natsume said in a bored manner.

"Really! That long..."

"Hnn."

"That reminds me!" Mikan exclaimed. "Where's Ruka-pyon? He's supposed to be in the same class as me, but I didn't see him at all."

"Out with the animals, there was some sort of trouble in the forests of the east; he'll be back here today afternoon." Natsume replied in his usual bored tone."Hey wait! How do YOU know Ruka?"

"OF COURSE I know Ruka. I'd know my own brother anywhere."

"Brother!" Natsume exclaimed nearly falling of his perch on the window sill. "How come we didn't know for so long?"

"Daddy..." Mikan murmured before she trailed off. They sat in a companionable silence for a while.

"I've got to get going, we have Serina now." Mikan nodded.

"Natsume, when will you come see me next?"

"Probably in an hour and a half or so… I'll come as soon as I can." She nodded again

"Can you please get my I-pod from my room?"

"Hnn." He answered before jumping down from the window.

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When Natsume returned next, he was greeted with Mikan's angelic sleeping face. Smiling to himself he left Mikan's I-pod and his present, an extra-large box of Howalon (What's the spelling?) beside her on the pillow, and left her sleeping soundly. He simply stayed and watched her, until the bell signaling the end of lunch rang loud cutting through the silence. He was smiling softly afterward; but stopped immediately when he found the others, especially Koko, grinning at him.

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.

"Natsume!" Mikan squealed as he jumped up from the ground onto the window, and into the room; to come face to face with an extremely happy (not to mention very hyper) Mikan. That was all his mind could register until he was pulled into a bone breaking hug. Luckily it was Natsume. Anyone else would have been dead in seconds. Surprisingly Natsume allowed her to hug him, and he was enjoying it! Not to mention that he actually hugged her back!

"Don't tell me you've finished that box of Howalon _already_!" Mikan just nodded into his shirt making Natsume's jaw drop to the ground. It had been a deluxe special, the largest size available. It had easily been over a kilogram of the stuff!

"I should never have bought you those!" he said extracting himself from her arms. He felt the loss of heat hit him immediately…

"Ah come on." Mikan said a slight frown etched upon her angelic features. Natsume just sighed.

"Let's get you to bed again, you're still weak."

"Thanks for everything Natsume!" she exclaimed, completely failing to hear his words. "I could kiss you!" Natsume grinned at that. He would happily let her kiss him. In fact he would get to the seventh heaven, despite all his sins. Her words really got his imagination going... He was snapped out of it by Mikan who was now cannonading him with questions about the happenings in class, while Natsume was trying to get her back in bed.

"Hnn." He said choosing not to answer. "Ruka will be coming in a few minutes."

This distraction proved to be a bit too much; Mikan turned to look at him with an expression of pure joy, until she tripped on the comforter and fell against Natsume in a rather awkward position. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Mikan raised her head to look at Natsume. "I should really calm down now..." Mikan sighed.

"You think!" Natsume muttered. He was starting to get some painful pins and needles in the arm Mikan was currently lying on. Gently pushing her off him, he finally managed to get her into bed.

"Sorry 'bout that Natsume" Mikan said still laughing. Natsume grinned

"So it's strawberries today."

"What?" Natsume sighed

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"Natsume~! You Perverted JERK!" She screamed with flames in her eyes. Ring any bells? Oh well at least she was a bit quicker this time. Not much though...

"So much for kissing me" thought. Just then the bell rang. He went to open the door leaving Mikan ranting like an old woman. "Finally" he muttered admitting the newcomer.

On seeing her visitor: "RUKA-PYON!" Mikan immediately jumped out of bed and pulled him into her signature 'killer hug'.

"M-Mikan!" he gasped "I told you I can't take hugs like that!" he said extracting himself from her life sucking grip.

"I'm sorry..." she stuttered "It's just that I haven't seen you in such a long time and I missed you and Natsume could take that hug! He was fine so I thought you would be able to too."

"I missed you too Mikan." He said this time he pulled her into a hug, laughing even as sweat beaded his forehead. His sister was insanely strong. To be able to take such a hug from her was really something.

Glancing at Natsume he was rewarded by seeing him blush. "So our black cat is falling for my sister is he..." Ruka thought. This would get very interesting. They were a perfect couple... but would they survive as one? Mikan was very troublesome. Natsume may have uncountable hidden strength, but he had seen all aspects of both his sister and Natsume. Ruka wondered if Natsume could handle her... And if she could handle him being as— _damaged_—for lack of a better word; as he was…

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

It was eight o'clock. Natsume said he would come see her at seven! He was mega late and she would have to go to sleep soon. The nurse would come in with those detested sleeping pills.

She increased to volume of the song she was listening to: Love the Way You Lie. Just then the door clicked open, Mikan looked up eagerly. It WAS Natsume!

"No window this time." Asked Mikan trying to be cold, she didn't want him to see how much she had waned to see him. Natsume shook his head.

"You are really late you know." Said Mikan a hint of hurt and accusation entering her voice.

"I know and I'm sorry" Natsume said sighing as he looked away "I got held up." An enraged look entered his eyes as he said this. All Mikan's anger evaporated. She paused the song.

"Never Mind" Mikan exclaimed "At least you came!"

They sat and talked till nine thirty, the nurse had made an exception to the rule just this once. She was the one who treated Natsume as well when he was in the wing; and she knew that he opened up to no one but his best friend Ruka, and a handful of other boys, and that too not completely. She had sensed love between the two and had let him stay for much longer that she should have. She went in and gave Mikan the pills, then quickly made her exit. As Natsume walked to the window, she pressed play on her I-pod:

_... but you promised her next time you'll show restraint_

_You don't get another chance _

_Life is like an intendo game _

_Now you get to watch her leave out the window_

_Guess that's why they call it window-pain..._

Window-pain indeed she thought... Should she? But what would he think? Mikan decided she didn't care. She didn't like this place and she- she did miss his presence next to her at night... "Natsume!" she called. He paused and looked up at her through the window. "Could you -" she paused, "Could- could you please ..."

"What Polka I don't have all day."

"Could you please stay with me!" it said, it came out rushed, she was worried that he hadn't understood, she wasn't sure if she had the courage to repeat it. Natsume grinned. "Why little girl? Scared?" he asked in an innocent tone, but a completely opposite look on his face. Mikan bristled at first, but she decided to tell the truth instead.

"Yes!" she said sounding exasperated at first. "I don't like it here. It's creepy! And it keeps reminding be of bad things!" her tone changed as a tinge of fear entered it. Only then did she dare look at Natsume's face. At first there was a look of shock written over it, at the fact that Mikan had actually told him outright, instead of denying it, then disappointment at the fact he'd missed out on teasing her. These lasted for less than a second. They were replaced first by a loving smile, and then a grin. He jumped in through the window and walked toward a shocked Mikan.

"What? You didn't think I'd sleep on the couch did you? You asked me to stay! Now budge up and make some room for me." Mikan obeyed and soon they were both lying on the bed, back to back. Mikan started to close her eyes, only to snap them open again as she felt arms encircling her waist. Soon after she felt warm breath shifting her hair and tickling her neck; "Natsume..." was her last thought, as they both fell sound asleep with large smiles on their faces.

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After three days Mikan was finally back to regular classes. Well... not exactly regular. every where she went people keep staring at her, it had become common knowledge that she was the one who had caused the ruckus on the day of the late king's death, people regarded her either as a freak and they were all scared that she had and probably still had such power over them.

Luna of course didn't miss the chance to start bad rumours. Apparently her only objective in coming to the school had been in capturing Natsume's heart, get married happily ever after, and according to some accurate rumours, partially conformed by Koko, killing her husband after his parents died and living a life of glory and power.

She had also found out after thorough interrogation of some more senior hormonal guys who she could wrap around her finger; that Natsume was close to the Mikan girl. She would make life a living hell for her, so much so that she wouldn't even dare look at **her** Natsume. This plan was put into action by her and her slutty minions soon after she came back to regular class, by this time she had found out that Natsume usually slept with Mikan and this had her furious. Mikan's fate was sealed, and not for the better. Luna's chance came not much later, and she took it.

Our innocent and naive Mikan was walking through the gardens, it was rather late in the evening and Natsume had been called by Persona to finish some work for him, Mikan was alone and venerable.

She was done for as soon as she took the short cut leading to the dorms; not that she knew...

As quick as the wind Luna and her cronies were onto her, they tied her hands and feet as well as gagged her. Then they were beating the life out of her with the bats they had come armed with, scratching her with their nail. They did this for almost fifteen minutes straight. Mikan's muffled screams of pain pierced empty air. They had chosen their place well. No one would come save Mikan. They left her in the mud, with a whispered warning. "If you as much as look at **my **Natsume ever again, trust me I'll do worse. The first offence I might let it slide with a warning a second and I'll make your life a living hell, third I'll obliterate both you and your family. Got that sweetheart?" Mikan could only struggle against her bonds as they left her in the dust. Her last thoughts were that she was happy she was covered in mud, that it would help staunch the bleeding, but she had already lost too much blood, she was out cold in less than a minute. Her only hope was that someone realized that she was missing, and real soon too.

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Natsume walked out of the DA class sighing all Persona ever thought about were missions and training, missions and training and lastly, missions and training.

He walked to Mikan's room, only to find it dark and empty; he had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Mikan had promised to be in the room by 5:30, and she always, always kept her word, he knew from experience. Though she was notorious for being late he could safely rule out that option since it was well past 6:30 now.

Panic began to take over his mind, he pushed it down, and rushed to Imai's lab, praying that she did have a tracking device on Mikan (which was almost certain) and that she was actually in the lab, if she wasn't he could go check her dorm, the two rooms were only one floor apart, but if she wasn't in either of those places he was in trouble, true being a vampire gave him keen sense of smell, but he didn't have the time to go around sniffing the _whole_ school.

For all he knew Mikan could be lying in the dust right now, bleeding to death.

Just as he reached the dorms, he stopped and stood stock still. He smelt blood, and he recognized the scent.

The last time he had caught this scent was six years ago. His legs started to move on their own accord. This was the scent of Mikan's blood, he was sure of it, and this was bad, it meant Mikan was bleeding, any by the strength of the scent she had lost a good amount of that precious liquid.

This was bad, to hell with Imia; he would be faster if he didn't go to her. He skidded to a halt amidst the trees; the scent was getting fainter now. On impulse he ran toward a common short cut to the dorms that some of the girls used. It was closer to the girls' side of the building… He broke through the trees, to the pathway, paved from years of use, only to have his breath caught in his throat.

Mikan lay there, blood staining the wet mud around her. He pushed back his initial panic. He had to take her to Imia's room, it was the closest. He could try healing her when she was this dirty, he might heal the skin as well as allowing the dirt to become part of her body permanently, who knew what harm that could do her; Imia would of course...

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Mikan up woke in a daze. She was surrounded by machines toys and little trinkets; she of course knew immediately that she was in Hotaru's room. She was covered in saliva: Natsume she thought, but otherwise she was fine. She just felt a bit groggy. "She's awake;" said a passive robotic voice.

"Good go call Hyuuga, he needs to be on stand by while I do the tests."

"Yes." A few minutes later she felt strong arms lift her. She then felt herself deposited on a cold hard surface. It was a metal bed. She felt a warm thin beam at her head, which continued down to her neck chest; all the way down to her feet.

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"It's no good, she's lost to much blood she needs transfusion."

"I'll give the blood."

"No can do Hyuuga, Groups don't match; and we can't ask her mother, it'll take too long."

"What's her group, there's got to be someone in the school with the same blood type."

"Her blood group is O, that too O-ve… very rare. There is someone with the same type, but I doubt they'll be very willing..."

"Who!"

"Shouda Sumire."

"Leave it to me. I'll get the blood, somehow, even if I have to suck it out of them!"

"Alright then." Came the answer but Natsume was already at the door. "We're counting on you Natsume. Both of us are. Don't let my best friend die." It was barely audible, but Natsume's senses were just that sharp...

"I won't." With that he was out the door, with a steel resolve.

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"Shouda."

"Natsume!" exclaimed the flustered girl, whose imagination was running wild as she was dragged out to the class room by her crush. Regardless completely oblivious to the dirty thoughts running through the girl's mind, Natsume dragged her to the sakura tree.

"I need a favour."

"Anything for you Natsume!" the girl gushed.

"I need blood." Natsume stated.

"Oh I see, you're a type of vampire aren't you! So you need to drink blood! Of course I'll give mine to you!"

"What _are_ you talking about woman? I don't _need _to drink blood. It's for Mikan." Sumire dropped to the floor, almost literally, but she regained composure just as quickly.

"Wait… did you say Mikan? Luna didn't do anything bad to her did she? She was talking about something like that earlier. She's an absolute FFB!"

"FFB?"

"Some rather bad words which includes female dog... Let's leave it at that shall we…" Sumire said with a note of satisfaction in her voice.

"Good one. Now let's go. We don't have much time."

"Right, Oh and Natsume, I hope you're planning some pay back for her after Mikan comes back. If you haven't I'd be happy to help out."

"Sure thing." Natsume replied.

Maybe Sumire wasn't so bad after all…

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

The next time she woke, she was in her own bed, she could tell by the scent of strawberry soap, that she always had her linen washed with. Groaning she fell back into blackness.

The third time she awoke, she had regained some amount of energy, she lifted her head to see Natsume looking down at her, "So," she asked, "How long was I out this time?"

"Actually you broke your record; you were only out for 4 days." He said smiling.

"Well… That's good to know." She replied sighing.

"You're going back to school in two days. You don't have much choice. The main office said I had to be there with you 24/7 in case anything happened, but you can't miss more school." He sounded tired.

"That's GREAT! I can't wait to get back…" she paused "But that means I'll be causing more trouble for you doesn't it." She said, her face falling.

"No worries" Natsume replied. Then he leaned close to her ear and whispered; "Anything for MY Mikan..."

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

End of Chapter Four


	6. History Lesson

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

History Lesson

"Mikan! How are you? "

"Good thanks," the whole class started to gather around her, but everyone hurriedly rushed to their seats when Natsume started to hand out death glares to all but Mikan's and his closest friend, with the new addition of Sumire.

She had had a great time boasting to the class, about her entrance to the 'exclusive', 'Popular Peoples' '' (also called PP) group by the rest of the class. And of course she took the utmost care to make sure Luna heard **every **_**single**_** word she said**.

Soon after the bell rang, and everyone chatted all through prayers, as usual, then not like usual, Jinno-sensei came in instead of Narumi, their home-room teacher.

"Well, aren't you going to wish me, you ungrateful wretches?" Well no they weren't since he didn't give them the chance to.

"Today I'll be teaching you the most recent history, you know that from the 5th standard onward, history will only be a graded subject, you will not receive your usual marks. Geography will be the same."

"Are you all paying attention, this is the most important subject taught in the school-"

"Now, now Jinno, that is a bit of an exaggeration. It is very important, but not to that extent," said a voice from the door.

"Well I have to say that or they won't give me the required amount of attention."

"I'm sure that won't be the case, it isn't the most important topic taught in the school, but it may as well be the most interesting."

"Indeed, will you be taking over now then," the teacher asked with a hint of hope in his voice and manner, hope that was dashed by the answer he received.

"I'll only be taking the last part of the lesson, the rest is all yours, I will however sit in the class."

"Of course," Jinno said, effectively hiding his disappointment. "Where would you like to sit Principal?"

"I'll sit over at the back there, next to Mikan," he said as he walked into the class, being unable to hide a faint limp in his walk.

"Budge up a bit Mi-chan." He whispered to his niece, who whispered back:

"No space, this is a two seater. Can I sit on your lap? Please?"

"I'm afraid not, I got myself an injured leg, no, no, don't worry, it's nothing serious!" he hastily added seeing his niece's eyes tear up, gosh she was quite the cry-baby... "We don't you sit on his lap?" he asked referring to Natsume, who had been pretending not to pay attention. He noted with a smile that there was a sight blush on the boy's cheeks at the mention of having close contact with Mikan, that too for a long period. "I don't mind," said the clueless girl. "That is if he doesn't. Do you Natsume?" she asked nudging him before asking, to make sure he'd hear. "Hnn. I don't mind" he shifted his position to allow Mikan to get on his lap.

The whole class turned to stare at them, until Jinno-sensei redirected their attention. He had been trying to get the projector to switch on, but he failed, and decided to teach without the presentation, he wasn't even comfortable teaching with it, if he had an excuse to get out of it, then he certainly wouldn't complain.

"As you know, the Great War of Alices, took place between 1998 and 2006" (very recent in real life terms, but in the story it's about 2021) "In the war, there were armies of normal humans, they made about 30% of the total armies that fought the war. The common term for them was 'Gun-Dogs'. As the name suggests, they were the ones who operated the guns and other artillery. The Alice-Users, who made up the other 70% fought with Alices, they all carried hand guns, but not the major ammunition the gun-men carried." He cleared his throat, and asked for every ones attention as they were still staring at Mikan on Natsume's lap, making the prior nervous and uncomfortable.

Jinno-sensei continued: "During the war, the strategies were set up so similar Alices battled similar Alices, with a few odd ones thrown in with the group, to deliver the fatal blows. As a result the ground absorbed much of the Alice prominent on that particular part of the battle field. This is why and how we have the different territories, and head families. Take for example in the Koizumi region, all the elemental Alices were set up there during the war. The strongest types of Alices... The alice most effective in countering the elemental alices was the soul-sucking alice possessed by the Koizumi family, therefore, their family was given the land embedded with the element alices. It is one of the most powerful lands at present."

"Note Miss Koizumi has a control device on her, meaning she cannot misuse her powers." (Note he said misuse, not use. XD I really don't like Luna)

"Notice I say '**one**' not '**the**'; the most powerful lands are under the Sakura royal family. The land holder families such as the Koizumis are often considered as lower royalty. Also marriages are usually arranged as not to dilute the family blood, so the Alice does not die out. Not only is it their duty, but it is also the result of the competition. There are many families with the same Alice. The land holders can be easily replaced."

"The Miss Luna's, Mr. Koko's and Miss Sumire's families are rare exceptions, they are the only families which posses that particular alice, so they must be careful. It is also worth mentioning that Doctor Imia, with the help of his team has discovered a way to ascertain the alice in the newborn child. Also as a last resort, the queen can use her alice to take the stone of the mother or father, an insert it into the child, this however is not the best way, the stone will. As well as this there are the true royal families, their linage is ascertained aka who ever that marry, the child will defiantly have the Alice of the ascertained linage. Now you all know that each Alice has a symbol to represent it-"

"I'll take over from here thank you." All heads turned to him. He stood and went to the front of the class room, to continue the lesson.

"Each Alice is depicted as an animal, whether it is a real animal or simply a mythical beast. The 'soul-eater' Alice is depicted by a basilisk; the Yome family's symbol is an owl."

"We all know that the owl is a symbol of wisdom, and we all know that such a quality is utterly nonexistent in your classmate, it was the same for his father, but the owl is also the symbol of knowledge. Being able to read minds gives you a lot of that. The current central town was the enemy strategy and weaponry base, meaning that the Alice absorbed by the ground was the invention and other such types of Alices. The ground started pulling all sorts of surprise tricks on us and the inhabitants, so we had the mind reading Alice holders' taking care of the land, so they could anticipate and control any trick that the Alices in the land try to pull."

"The symbol for the Hyuuga royalty is a Fire Dragon; all Hyuugas have the fire Alice. They control the lands with some extremely powerful ice and water Alice imbedded into the land. Their mere presence heats up the land and makes it habitable, however it is still cold there, and that's probably why the Hyuuga kingdom is most famous for winter fashion" the principal finished winking.

"The Sakura royalty's symbol is much more complex. Their symbol, as a whole, is a sakura tree, the symbol of their daughter's Alices. Queen Yuka's symbol, was a magpie, a bird which stole precious thing, like Alices, as the queen does; my late brother's Alice symbol was a hibernating bear, which would let nothing disturb it, like the nullification shield the late king created."

"Animals are revered in our country, as they are considered to be the first moving creations on this earth."

"Before coming to the exceptions; know this, all most all of them are sitting in your class. There are only four, the others aren't major exceptions, but I would like to explain them to you anyway. I will be asking you to come up to the front. The first exception is Koko, his Alice has three levels to it, in most Alices there are only two levels, also usual Alices, you have both levels at your disposal since you are born, however in his Alices' case, the second and third levels have to be unlocked, how they are unlocked depends on the person."

"The next is Natsume's Alice; the first major exception. His Alice is the only Alice which does not need material to be used. Let me explain, for the wind Alice to work, there must be air around the user. For the nullification Alice to work, there has to be an opposing Alice. For Natsume's Alice, he does not require any material present. He starts his fires literally out of thin air."

"But his Alice takes up his energy right?" asked Anna

"Good question. His Alice does not take up energy, it takes up life force, at first, it is not harmful, life force, is surprisingly, able to regenerate rather fast, so it seems to only be taking up energy. You see, Alices have two different origins. Perseverance and Destruction, the two entities we believe to have created the world. Alices originated from Perseverance have no price, but ones originated from destruction do have a price. Destruction's power is meant only to destroy; and it does, every time the power is used, it ends up destroying part if the user's life, like any sickness or wound, this can be healed, depending on the size or depth of the it, but not if the user is too far gone."

"There is a rumour about an Alice originated from only creation..." the class was surprised to hear Hotaru speak; she usually thought the classes were beneath her and didn't pay much attention. This was a wake up bell for those day dreaming.

"Yes, our research has proved that this rumour is about 80% valid, but such an Alice has not appeared, so it remains a legend. I believe it is better so."

"Anyway; on to the next major exception: first my niece Ruka." Muttering broke out. "Do drag Natsume along with you and while you're at it bring your sister as well why don't you." As the procession reached the front of the class, the principal began his explanation: "You all know that Ruka here has the animal pheromone Alice, but that is actually unheard of. Though they do not have intelligence like us, they, being the first to be created on this planet; they have a great affinity with the lands, and a stronger spiritual power. Both of these things are the things that result in the possession of an Alice. So it should be impossible for them to be controlled by an Alice, but young Ruka here can."

"This is the same for Queen Yuka, his mother's alice. Stealing an Alice, would mean stealing those two things: spiritual pressure or power, and affinity with the lands. This has been **proved** _**impossible**_, but the Queen's Alice allows her to do so."

"Another exception worth mentioning would be Sumire's Alice, because of her ability she actually has the ability to increase her spiritual pressure and affinity with the land. Her family controls a small amount of land. During the war, this land was where all the uncategorized Alices fought. They were often the most powerful Alices. The Shoudas' can increase their level of spiritual pressure, effectively disabling the Alices absorbed into the ground. They control only half of such types of land. The others are controlled by the Sakura royal family. The Shoudas can disable the Alices because of the raise in s.p or spiritual pressure. An Alice has less effect on a person with higher s.p than the user."

"Next is Mikan here with unique mixture of Alices, and they way they have developed in her, cannot be described by an animal, also we are not sure exactly how they have developed either. Those are the major exceptions."

"You said there were four; that was only three," stated Hotaru.

"That's because the principle is forgetting himself," said Jinno-sensei; speaking for the first time since he had given control of the lesson to the principal.

"Ah yes, myself. My Alice is in short an alice detection alice. An alice that was unheard of until I came along. My alice is also a two level alice. It is actually my second level that is the exception-" [*dramatic pause*] "The ability to change an alice which has not fully matured. I can change the alice of any user under the age of 18, the age you at which you graduate, as long as I posses or have access to more spiritual power than the subject. The reason you are not allowed out of the academy is precisely because of this. I am the only one who possesses such an Alice according to the census, but we do not have records of those in the AAO, the organization which was the main **cause** of the Great Alice War, if one of them possessed such an Alice, he or she could change your Alices to their benefit, the kidnap you and use your changed Alice to their benefit. Those who do go out before the age of 18; are given an anti change device. It is a device that separates you from the whole world, and let's nothing outside your skin affect you."

"Well then a kid that's your lesson. I'll be taking my leave of you all now." With that the principal left.

Then Jinno-sensei said standing up: "I hope you were taking notes this will be coming for your finals. From now on Miss Serina will be taking this lecture for her sciences. Make sure you make the change in your timetables." Every student froze, meanwhile Jinno-sensei left while he had the chance. Birds flew from their nests, and every one stopped their work as they heard the shout from the class:

"WHAT THE HELL! WHY WEREN'T WE TOLD EARLIER?" Koko would have been overtaken by the emotion he was receiving from other due to his out-of-control Alice which was caused by his own anger. However since he shared the same feelings, it only boosted his energy; he was the one who screamed the loudest.

"Language, students!" Exclaimed Mr. Narumi as he walked in to class and began the next lesson.

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

End of Chapter five


	7. Life's Not That Bad

҉҉ The Creator's Child and The Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

_**Life's Not That Bad**_

It spread around the school like wildfire, that Ruka and Mikan were siblings of the Sakura royalty. It had to come out sooner than later, sooner better than later...

Mikan however had a rather hard time, Ruka was used to it, he was always being stared at because of his looks, but Mikan had spent most of her life in the castle, being the heir and all...

Ruka was not the heir as he did not have the required alice, he had no hard feelings toward his sister despite that; it had always been Ruka's dream to be a vet.

He had another role. Near the border lands shared by the Hyuuga and Sakura kingdoms, there was a particularly odd mountainous formation, one which no human could enter, only animals. It also was inclined to hurt things around it; in the old days, it would suck energy from human settlements there, now there were no settlements, according to Ruka's discoveries so far, the energy has to be taken, so it must be taken from the animals. When they were old and tired of life, they would enter they place and offer themselves to whatever was there. This had been all he could gather from his little 'chats' with the animals.

He was also sent there to deal with problems like stray soldiers wandering into the area, the place had a hypnotic aura around it. Anyone who wondered in would immediately wonder into the 'catacombs', as the formation had been named.

There were cases of the land shaking, or most commonly neighboring landholders sending hunting parties into the woods, and getting upset when they do not come back, despite being warned. All in all he had a huge load on his plate. His parents had an unlimited amount of trust in him, they had entrusted him with the job, and he had been doing more than needed. Higher officials refuse to fully acknowledge him for fear that their own positions would go, rightly so, just a few months ago, an official had been demoted, and Ruka had taken over his responsibilities; it was the same for Natsume too.

The most recent escapade of the Koizumi family had left him 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' pissed off. At least the 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' the song that was playing was more or less happy. He got bored listening to it, and forwarded to the next song: 'I Knew I Loved You' also by Savage Garden (at least I think so, do try listening to them, they're quite nice, according to the comp it's pop. I'm not sure though, just try listening to them...)

Just then the very same bitch came up to the table Ruka and Natsume were sharing. The saying should change to '_Think_ of the devil.' "What do you want Loony?"

"Ooohhh! Natsume made up a nickname for me!" Ruka rolled his eyes at her stupidity, mentally trying to extract revenge, it wasn't quite enough though. Meanwhile Natsume was resisting the urge to punch her face to zilch, she didn't deserve a pretty face, it was fake anyway; and while he was at it, he might as well rip of her breasts, she always made them hang out so much, he might as well pull them out completely.

Luna of course was oblivious. "Ruka~" she trilled making her ceiling high pitched voice reach the sun. Ruka tried to ignore her, just as both he and Natsume were trying to ignore the pain in their eardrums.

"I heard that there was another stray hunting group incident! Daddy's been telling everyone not to! I'll tell him to show them what disobeying means. Don't worry Ruka." Luna said layering her voice with so much sugar, she wanted to make the boys vomit. "Well actually, it was 'daddy' who sent the group. They had all the flags and emblems."

"Not possible, they must have been copied or something!"

"Your father's the one who boasts that his emblems and flags cannot be copied, not me." Retorted Ruka as he and Natsume walked out of the cafeteria leaving behind a fuming Luna.

"Natsume, you have physics next. Your timetable has changed remember. It's the same as Mikan's."

"What've you got now then?" asked Natsume groaning at the inconvenience.

"Free." Stated Ruka his grin only growing, thinking of the torture his friend would have to go through.

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉

As soon as he entered the class he was buried in a flood of girls, it seemed all the girls from the school had gathered. And the worst thing was, that Miss Serina, anticipating this, had given a free period, after all she was spoilt for time, she had the history lectures as well.

He was about to ignite a fire barrier, when he heard loud gun shots, and girls collapsing in heaps. Sweat beaded every person's face, as all the girls for other classes scrambled to the door, almost breaking it in their rush to escape the new and improved 'Baka-gun'. Sighing with relief, Natsume walked to his seat, to find a curious Mikan.

"Natsume what's going on? The girls don't usually go after you like _that_!"

"Coming of Spring festival."

"Huh?" she asked huge question marks decorating her eyes.

"It's when we break the winter frost, if we didn't use our alices to do it, then the snow would never thaw naturally because of the alices in the land."

"Wow but wouldn't you burn everything down?"

"No we cover the whole country with white fire, even the people. It's a fire which cannot burn, it only gives warmth."

"Wow it must be really beautiful!"

"Hnn"

"But Natsume why were all those girls running after you?"

"The Spring Love Legend."

"Oh..." she said not questioning further. "Natsume how does it feel, the fire I mean?"

"It's a fire that can only be created through love. It feels magical." Natsume said, for the first time in ages, Mikan hear a hint of emotion in his voice.

"Hum... That must be why they introduced the spring holiday right!"

"Wow, you guessed. I didn't think you had it in you." Said Natsume smirking.

"NATSUME! Any way I really wish I could see it." Mikan said in a dreamy tone.

"Who said you can't?"

"Huh?"

"You can just ask your mother if you can come. There won't be any danger; you'll be with me the whole time."

"Really! That's great!"

"Idiot, a three year old could have told you that."

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

It was morning, and students were filing into the class in groups. Just then a shout was heard.

"MIKAN-NEE!" it seemed to have come from a young child, judging from the high pitch of the voice; just then another young female voice was heard, equally high:

"Yo-chan you can't just go around shouting for her!" she said.

Mikan franticly looked around for the source of the voice, to no avail. Finally, feeling a tug on her skirt she looked down, to find a young boy, who came up to her waist. Just then another girl came into the room

"Youichi!"

"Aoi!" Exclaimed both Natsume and Mikan together, shocked to see their younger siblings in the class.

"How cute!" exclaimed Sumire.

"No wonder, look at who's the elder one!" only then did they realize what a crowd they had attracted.

"What are you two doing here?" asked Mikan

"We're being enrolled into the school after the spring break!"

"What!"

"Mommy said daddy had wanted it..." immediately the mood fell.

Breaking the trance Youichi pulled one of Aoi's pigtails.

"Oi! What was that for huh!"

"Aunty Kaoru gave you a message for Natsume-nii" he said in a impassive voice.

"You didn't have to pull my hair just for that. I was about to tell him before you interfered!"

"No you forgot." He replied

"Did not!"

"Did too." He replied in the same deadpan voice. Mikan and the on looking class sweat dropped, surprisingly, Youichi was exactly like Natsume.

"What message?" asked Natsume interrupting them.

"That you and Mikan-nee are supposed to look after us, and that both Mikan and Youichi would be coming to our place for the spring coming festival, cause the castle's security still needed to be checked, they still haven't found how the a-assassin got in, she said that aunt Yuka would be going somewhere secret with Ruka-nii." She finished solemnly.

"Anyway" said Youichi changing the mood. "Where is Ruka-nii?"

"Right here. I just saw mother."

"Ruka-nii" exclaimed Youichi running to him and giving him a flying hug; making the girls and guys in the class go into a dead faint because of his cuteness.

"Youichi" said Ruka laughing. "How've you been?"

"Good." He said letting his elder brother go.

"Right I just came to say that Shiki's already dropped off all the stuff you need for the spring break in your room. I'll be leaving with him and mother now. We're going to your place."

"Oh." replied Mikan

"Please try and look after her, I know how tough it is, her being the klutz she is."

"Ruka! You traitor; my own brother too! "Exclaimed Mikan in indignation. Natsume replied with a smirk.

"At least _someone _understands."

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

The Last day of school came, the much awaited results also came up. Hotaru stood first, Natsume second, Ruka third; surprisingly Mikan and Sumire fifth. Luna of course got last place, but she bribed the school into not putting her score on the board, which only started worse rumors about her. The best thing about the school was that you couldn't just leave after you get awful marks, or after you do something bad. You have to stay and suffer the consequences.

Luna of course, was becoming less and less popular, and the frustration was driving her crazy, having an alice, which could make her the most popular person in the universe, but being unable to use it. It was so amusing to watch her suffer so, they decided to leave out the revenge plan.

Soon it was time to leave. Mikan and group set off for the Hyuuga kingdom as soon as the results had been announced.

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

"Hey Mikan?"

"Mmm"

"Do you know the legend of the thaw festival?"

"The thaw festival?"

"It's another name for it"

"Oh! No I don't." Replied a sleepy Mikan to an equally bored Aoi. They both wanted to sleep, but that was impossible. But trust people like Natsume and Youichi, (who were definitely from different families, but were so similar, it was uncanny) be able to do the impossible.

"There are two. The first is that a wish for the future, made when the fire is touching you, will surely come true. That's one, the second on is our spring love legend; For any boy and girl holding hands when the thawing fire touches them, will have the seed of love planted in them, and this seed, can be killed, but it must be done by the end of the first day of spring, or love will surely bloom betwixt them." Finished Aoi solemnly.

"Wow you're a great story teller Aoi. And you have a great spring love story. Ours is so boring compared to yours. On the morning of the first day of spring if you wash your face with dew, just as the sun is rising, you will see the face of your husband." (It is a true legend in England, but on a different day, I can't remember...)

They fell back into silence, that was broken only by the rhythmic sound of Natsume and Youichi's soft breathing. (I am NOT saying he's snoring, I'm just pointing out that he's sleeping!)

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

It was a long journey, and Mikan was dead tired, she was not used to travelling by horse, and from Alice Academy, it was the only way to get to the Hyuuga kingdom; It was too dangerous to travel by plane in the Hyuuga kingdom, as Mikan was used to, because of the elemental alices, and the terrain was to uneven for a railway track, so horses it was...

By the time they reached the borders Mikan was sleeping like a rock. Natsume on the other hand was well rested as he had been asleep throughout the trip, call it another of the many crazy talents.

Other than being sleepy Aoi was relatively fine, she was used to the trip. But it had been especially hard for Mikan, who was out for the count. In the end Natsume had to carry her to the car. Aoi sat in the front, with Youichi, while Mikan slept on Natsume's lap, in the back seats.

By the time they had reached the palace, Mikan was wide awake, taking in the scenery that surrounded her. The landscape was dominated completely by snow, it was a breath taking sight, like something out of a painting, currently, there was even light snow fall, adding to the impression, and as they say, 'First impressions always last.' Mikan's first impression of Natsume's homeland, and his kingdom to be, would forever be embedded into her mind, as the most beautiful place she had ever seen. It was so like Natsume too, harsh and cold on the outside, but warm and gentle on the inside, Mikan had read somewhere that if it weren't for the snow, the young plant shoots would have been destroyed by the storms and wind.

"Like my humble kingdom?" asked Natsume teasingly "if you want it you're going to have to marry me."

"You know what for this place; I _ACCTUALLY_ wouldn't mind much." She said it in such a serious tone, you had to believe her. Natsume was so surprised he tripped on the stairs and only just prevented himself from falling flat on his face, possible only with a little help from his special training.

It really came to good use, but you would NEVER catch him saying that in front of Persona, his cruel trainer.

"You're joking right" he asked just to confirm.

"You are, but I'm not, not really" said Mikan sighing. Natsume couldn't categorize the answer he got, in the situation, it was negative, but in the long run, it was DEFINATELY positive.

He ended up entering the palace, with his face covered by his hood, because it was decorated with a goofy grin and a bright pink blush, that he could NOT afford to show ANYONE; however his family members knew straight away, and didn't spare him the teasing. Mikan of course was oblivious, she had a brilliant mind, but when it came to people, especially boys, she was absolutely clueless, not to mention naive.

So like her...

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

"MIKAN! Get up you STONE HEAD!"

"Huh? Whaa!" Mikan cried as she woke up to see little Aoi on her bed, sitting on her legs. "Hey go away! I barely have any cloths on!" she said, hurriedly pulling the covers around her.

"Seriously in a place this cold, you say you went to sleep with barely anything on?"

"I thought you had a good few layers on under that thin quilt."

"What, Natsume too! And Youichi! Get out now! I mean it's not my fault I don't feel the cold at all!"

"Oh well... should have expected that from you."

"Hey what was that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing Polka, hurry up and get ready. We're going out to buy clothes."

"Huh?" she asked with a confused face.

"For the festival idiot!"

"Oh."

"You really are stupid nee-san."

"Humph. Get out so I can change."

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

"Wow! This place is great!" exclaimed Mikan for the third time, completely overwhelmed by the vastness, of a _completely normal_ market. After all, this was her first time in one... and it _was _Mikan**...**

Finally, they managed to reach the kimono store; they would have reached hours earlier, if Mikan hadn't been forcing them to stop at _every damn_ shop or store! When they did reach, the girls of course took ages to chose their kimonos... the poor boys, weren't even allowed to escape, it was amazing, they seemed so focused on choosing, but every time the boys made an escape attempt, the girls would _always _catch them! It was freaky!

Finally the girls came out in their chosen kimonos to show the boys. Aoi, was in a stunning black kimono, with fire patterns decorating the bottom of the dress, on plain glittery black which was the background, as was the top half of her kimono, her belt was of a pale bright, but _not_ florescent, pink.

Mikan was in a pale peachy pink kimono, decorated with sakura blossom petals. It started out as a dense cluster at her right shoulder, spreading out as if they were in the wind at her torso, winding around her thighs, into something less dense, but a much wider cluster at her feet. She also had a thin belt, of deep yellow, with thin intricate vine-like designs on it. Which looked almost like fire.

Both boys were awe struck, of course...

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

Mikan woke panting, covered in sweat. For the first time in a long time, she had had a nightmare.

It had been extremely vivid.

The first time her Alice had gone out of control. Or to be more accurate, when her true alice had awoken; but she didn't know that. When her second Alice had awoken, it had been rather harmless. She had stolen part of her personal assistant's Misaki's alice by mistake; but there had been no harm done, as she had immediately put it back again, with her third alice, which had awoken with her second alice.

It had been a rainy day, which perfectly fit the mood of the castle. Mikan's grandfather had just passed away, and Mikan was in denial. She refused to belief it. Her grandfather had been like a second father to Mikan. Though her father made sure to balance family and work, both her parents did, they were still away a lot. It was her grandfather who would stay with and play with little Mikan.

Her mother, who was also mourning, and was stressed with her ever growing work load; had finally snapped, in her anger, she had shouted at Mikan screaming that other people were upset too, and that the dead were dead you just had to accept that. Mikan had lost control then, and being an honest child, she didn't wish for extermination of the world etcetera… she wished not for the return of her grandfather, as her mother's words had struck deep in her soul. She wished that the whole world would come down on her, and so it did.

There were injuries reported among the staff, and her parents had been out in the garden, the one who received most of the injuries was Ruka, he had gone back inside to save her, and he still sported an ugly scar across his back as a cruel memento of that day.

Mikan got up and went to get dressed, in her famous Zombie Mode. Where she would do everything perfectly well, but her mind would be miles away, the cruelty of the world hit her all over again, opening old and creating new wounds in her innocent and naive heart. She made her bed, and completed her regular morning routine. She got dressed and walked out her door, closing it and taking the key.

As she reached the place, she saw Natsume. His lips were moving, telling her something, but she couldn't hear. He was smiling.

He took her hand, and dragged her empty body to the main ring, where everyone was waiting for her, smiling. Aoi, her parents, and all of a sudden she had joined the circle, a warm fire, white and glowing, started at the centre of the circle.

It all happen so fast, in less than a blink, the fire had spread completely covering the centre ring. And it travelled like wildfire on a gusty day. And then it was all gone. In those tinny seconds, she realized that life was not as awful or as cruel as she had thought it to be. She had her friends and family, people who would all ways be there for her, and that she thought was more than enough.

After the fire disappeared, in her hand she found a tinny stone. An alice stone she guessed. Deep red, with an unmistakable white light, shining in the centre, though it was dimmed by the red around it, gorgeous; stunning; striking; attractive; picturesque; scenic; magnificent; glorious; exquisite... none those words would; nor could describe the stone. She turned to Natsume, noticing him glancing at her, but he looked away immediately, and excused himself.

When he glanced back at Mikan, he saw her hold the stone to her heart, and whisper to it, though he was far away, somehow, he could still hear her, as if she was speaking to his very heart, "Thank You Natsume." A light blush crept up his face, and he broke into a run.

He had no Idea what made him do it, an alice stone, was a tiny part of your soul, tiny, but still a part of it. in the wrong hands, it could manipulate a person in any and every way, if it was large enough. And this had been no ordinary alice stone. It had been made during the advent of the White Fire. Not only that, it had been made by the caster of the white fire, while he was summoning the power of his ancestors, and had taken form, when the white fire purged the land of sin, darkness evil and cold.

This item may as well be one of the strongest things of power in existence. Part of the very fabric of his power, and all the powers similar to his; part of the fabric of the 'Destroyer Origin Powers' DOP…

And Natsume new less than half of this.

His mind thoroughly confused, by the actions of his heart.

_҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉._

_End of Chapter 5_


	8. Why 'Straw'berries?

"Mommy!" squealed a cute little girl. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! You're finally back!" Mikan jumped up and down, around her mother's legs, barely reaching her mother's waist.

"How was your trip Mommy?" she asked, looking adorable in her off-white kimono, which was stained a bright pinkish red colour.

Probably from the fruit she was carrying around in a small woven basket. She was holding one of them in her right hand even now. Half bitten though it was, her mother immediately recognized it to be her daughter's favourite fruit.

"It was fine dear. Now are you going to tell me what happened to that pretty dress of yours?"

"Huh?" Little Mikan asked confused, looking up at her mother.

"I'm talking about that." Yuka said pointing at the front of the kimono.

"Oh! _That!_" she exclaimed bringing the half eaten strawberry to her mouth and sucking it. "I never realized! I'm sorry." She said giving her mother the 'cute eyes ' treatment.

She looked the picture of angelic innocence, the type that only children posses, in her stained white kimono, with her little basket hanging from her arm. And to complete the look, a strawberry that look humungous in her tiny fingers, half sticking out of her mouth; the stark red, contrasting with her plush baby pink lips.

Sighing the queen said "You know that strawberries can't be grown here. The Hyuuga's gift them to you. So you shouldn't finish them all at once!"

"Tubasa is really nice! He brought me loads and loads!" said an excited Mikan, jumping up and down, gesturing with her delicate arms. "There's enough left for many, many more baskets! I'm glad Misaki and Tubasa like each other! They're engaged to! When they get married I'll visit them all the time!" exclaimed Mikan. Her mother laughed.

"All the same," she said after a while, when she had stopped giggling at her child's innocence, "You shouldn't have too many at the same time. If you do, you'll get sick, then you won't be able to have strawberries for a long, long time!" Yuka smiled as she saw her daughter's eyes go as wide as saucers.

"Alright then" she said rather glumly.

"Mommy," Mikan asked as they walked through the gardens to the palace, taking the longer more enjoyable route instead of asking the driver to take them straight to the gate. "Mommy, where's Daddy and Ruka-nii?"

"They're on their way darling, they'll be here soon. They might even be there when we get to the palace."

"Okay~!" exclaimed Mikan, now walking with a renewed spring in her step. A while later, Mikan slowed down again.

"What is it dear," her mother asked.

"Mommy why are these-" she said indicating the strawberries by waving her basket, "called 'Straw' berries? It doesn't really suit if you asked me. Why not red-berries or even red-delight!" she ejaculated her eyes brightening.

"Well," said Queen Yuka, trying with all her might not to laugh, and succeeding, as expected of the queen, but it wouldn't really have mattered much, Mikan was to absorbed in thinking up a reasonable answer to the question she had just asked.

"Well, maybe the last name of the person who discovered them was 'straw'...?"

"Nuu-un" Mikan replied shaking her head "What kind of a name is 'Straw'!"

"You never know there are very strange names around."

"I still don't buy it. Anyway, how can you _discover _strawberries? You said it yourself before: Strawberries have been around nearly forever."

"You do have a point there..." said a surprised Yuka. Her daughter could be pretty smart when she wanted to, but otherwise... "But that was wild strawberries, someone had to figure out how to plant them and grow them properly."

"True..." Mikan mumbled. After a long pause, she opened her mouth as if to agree, but instead said "I still don't buy it." Her mother sighed. Better sort this one out fast, or it would be the topic for every dinner for weeks to come.

"Well," she said acting quickly, "When you grow up, you can study hard and be very well educated, then when you take over the country, you can find out for yourself!" There. A Job well done... or maybe a little too well, it looked like she had given her child another topic to bring up at dinner. But then again she could cross the bridge when it came, so she stayed silent, watching and absorbing the cute happy aura that Mikan always gave out.

At the palace gate, the two men of the family saw Mikan punch the air with her fist, and giggle up at her smiling mother happily. "You think we missed something?"

"I'm guessing we missed something good." His father the king said somewhat disappointed.

"Oh well, we can catch it later on the cameras Hotaru put up around the place. But we'll have to ask mum first, she might ask us to pay..." The king paled visibly, Hotaru of the Imia kingdom, was the complete opposite of her parents. Among her more popular nicknames was 'Ice Princess,' and 'The Queen of Blackmail,' and that too only at the age of five, the same age as Ruka, and a year older than Mikan. But he didn't drop the chance to tease his son about it.

"Really my dear son: '_Hotaru_'; '_Might _ask us to pay';' you two must have gotten really close ehh?"

"_Shut. Up. Dad!_" Ruka fired back; it was very rare indeed for him to be like that. His father only chucked, he knew he was right.

If the great Hotaru Imia would be willing to give a discount, then why not take the chance...

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.


	9. Calm before the storm

҉҉ The Creator's Child and the Destroyer's Offspring ҉҉.

Calm Before The Storm

"Hello every one, you can be sure I am definitely _not _too happy to see you all. Let me explain why I am here. The HSP has decided to look through and take charge of our syllabus; and has said that the work covered in history, is pathetically lacking. I totally agree with him, and believe that the sciences have been given far too much importance for far too long. Therefore, we will go back to your old time table, _with _history." Mikan sighed. School was on again, she missed the holidays already, though it was only the first day, or perhaps that was why she missed them more. Currently Jinno-sensei was droning on about how bad out syllabus for history was.

Finally, he got to topic that he would be teaching. It was The History of Vampires. That explained why Serina-sensei was also present, she would be explaining the scientific parts. Natsume stiffened beside her, this class was going to be hell for him, he would be permanently stuck at the front of the classroom, while they learnt all about his anatomy and special features. Most girls would get to have a great time staring at him.

"Vampires were—excuse me, are a result of a human experiment on immortality. It was a success, but you all know the costs. Noble families that had offered themselves up for the experiment, were mostly soldiers, so they had great self control, to blood wasn't much off a problem. Soon, all the vampires seemed to have died out, but then, years later, solitary vampires started to pop up out of the blue. This is when we realized, that vampire blood remains dormant, the new generation of vampires had many more special abilities. These made them truly immortal. I had said that the first generation of vampires died out, but actually, they were killed out," Mikan saw Natsume's flinch. "People then were very superstitious and the idea of vampires did not sit well with them."

"Moving on to the scientific parts, the official name for vampires is: "

"? Isn't that the scientific name for leeches?" there was a huge tick on Natsume's forehead, and it was getting bigger

"No it is not." Mikan pitted the poor guy, who had forgotten they had a vampire in the class, and who exactly it was.

"Oh it sounds real similar, it figures I guess." And that did it! Not seconds later, the guys hair was on fire. As expected.

"Now let's continue." Said Serina sensei sighing, she had know this was coming the minute the boy mispronounced the word. Being called a leech, wasn't exactly top on her list of things to do either...

"We'll go to the properties of the skin now, and how the properties have evolved over time. Natsume, to the front now if you please."

"I don't please." He muttered getting up to make his way to the front of the class where he would no doubt be shown like a prized item in a museum. However, the comment did earn a giggle from Mikan.

"Let's start with the evolution of the skin."

And so; Natsume's nightmare went on...

Mikan was getting very drowsy. Everyone was; but there was a drastic change in the atmosphere when Serina-sensei said: "That would be all." But there was another drop in energy levels when she said: "Now Natsume, what other new properties have been discovered in you?"

"The ability to decompose myself in one place and reassemble myself in another place… and another ability which I will take the liberty of refusing to share with the class." A loud snicker was heard from Koko, but it was quickly silenced by a look from Natsume.

Mikan started to fell dizzy. Suddenly, the world went blank.


	10. Dreams

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

Dreams

Mikan jerked into awareness suddenly; she was being _picked up _by someone, and she felt unnaturally small. Next she realized that she could not be in her own body, first of all, she was feeling way too small, her sight was odd, and her hearing was funny, not better or worse, but more like an alien sense. She felt completely round, and last time she checked, she was at least five foot tall; despite Natsume's jibes about her height. And unless she was in land of giants, she was abnormally small. And even if she _was _in a world of giants, it wasn't any less disconcerting! She was still in an unknown place, completely vulnerable.

Next she realized that she was in the form of a fruit, she could smell herself, a very uncomfortable sensation, despite how nice and juicy she smelt. She was in someone's hand, meaning that she was going to be eaten; and soon. That was one sensation that she did _not _want to experience; ever.

God she hoped that this was just a dream, but you never know when you're an alice.

Suddenly she became aware of her surroundings, she was in a fruit bowl; correction, she _had _been in a fruit bowl. Now, something was suspending her in midair; if this was what flying felt like, then she was glad that it was one of those many skills she lacked! She felt whatever that was holding her before, most likely a hand, jerk her out of her previous state of suspension, and grip her more firmly. She felt her stomach churn, she was not enjoying this, and wished more than anything that she was back in her room, safe, with Natsume watching over her...

Suddenly, she felt an excruciating pain wash over her body. This brought her to three new conclusions:

She was most probably in the form of a fruit, most likely an orange or tangerine.

She was being peeled.

From what she could see, she was almost certainly in an enemy camp. She also realized that she had been unable to see properly before because she hadn't tried, her sight was perfectly fine now. The shock of the pain must have made her unconsciously open her orangey eyes.

Just then she felt her pain decrease. She watched as a khaki clad soldier entered what she guessed to be a tent of some sort, to deliver his report. Mikan _tried_ to listen.

"Your hypnosis was right, sir. Both children of _both _royal families are present, and security has barely increased. The defenses are strong, but nothing more than what we are prepared for, also we have maintained our element of surprise, at least up till now. It was exactly as you said."

"Very good," said the voice holding her. "We will initiate the attack just before dawn."

"Very good sir." Came the faithful reply. The other man seemed to lose interest in the orange, and it left his hand, spinning away to the ground, just as Mikan's consciousness was, spinning endlessly as it seemed. Luckily she had left the body of the orange, before it landed and flattened out on the floor, it's juice leaking out from it, like pale orange colored blood.

She woke with a jerk, to find herself looking at an extremely worried Natsume through teary eyes.

"Natsume, we're under attack."

The last thing Mikan saw before she lost consciousness again was Natsume's blood red orbs widen with surprise.

҉҉The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.


	11. Wars in Heaven

War in Heaven

The principal of the prestigious Alice Academy was awoken rather unconventionally by an uncouth knocking on his door which was a surprising thing in its self. No one meaning no one knew the entrance of to his private chambers, only three people in the whole school knew of it, so there was not much need for speculation, but he was left pondering why any of the few who knew where to knock, would be doing so. Being unable to think of anything else, he came to the conclusion that it must be Serina, who probably had had another vision.

He was caught completely unawares when he found his young niece standing in the door way, and watched blankly as she started shouting something at him. At the back of his mind (which was not really at very far back of his mind at the moment) he started to wonder how his little Mikan could hit a door so hard, but then he speculated, she had probably asked Natsume, who was standing behind her, looking just as bored as the principal guessed he was looking right now, but he seemed to be more annoyed, and the boredom was just a facade. It only just struck him, that if Natsume was NOT bored, then what Mikan was saying might be worth hearing, too bad for him, Mikan had already finished speaking:

"GOODNESS WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING!" she thundered.

"Uhh... Well-" Mikan did not let him finish his non-existent made-up-as-you-go explanation.

"For heaven's sake what is wrong with you people we are at -" Her last few words were cut off by loud uncouth thumping again.

Miss Serina barged in and immediately began shouting. The Principal however, relapsed into his original state of indifference.

What a repetitive night this was turning out to be...

He registered that Mikan was now shouting at her teacher, who showed no signs of retaliating. Deciding it was time to take matters into his own hands, his body spurred into action. He cleared his throat once.

Then twice,

Then trice

Then, he got fed up with the two bickering women, so he did the obvious thing.

.

.

He drenched them both from head to toe with freezing water.

Well though it was what he wanted to do, he couldn't so he resorted to dropping the glass causing a crash.

"I presume I have your attention now ladies." When the two women looked at him, he realized that he had incurred far more attention that anybody would be comfortable with.

He cleared his throat again "Right, what were you saying?" Both women opened their mouth, realizing his mistake the principal rectified it: "Mikan." Serina was about to protest, but Mikan was off before any sound could come out of the teacher's mouth; but only after she'd given Miss Serina 'the look'

"There's going to be an attack on the school"

"How did you know?" exclaimed Miss Serina, receiving dirty looks from all present.

"They'll be using guerilla tactics" continued Mikan unabashed, "They will start with the east gate which they will attack with 15 water Alice users. Then they will attack the north gate next, with 30 levitation alice users, 3 shrinking alice users, they mean to use the levitation alice for missiles and their objective would be to get the shrinking alice users inside the grounds to shrink the school buildings. At the south gate there will be 17 strength enhancement Alice users and 3 earth Alice users. The main force will attack at the west gate since it will be in darkness for the longest amount of time. This force relies on mostly on the forces attacking the other gates; which is: 1 water, 14 strength enhancement, 1 destruction, 2 ghost, 20 levitation, 1 shrinking, 2 earth and one mind alice user. There are huge cannon hidden in the outskirts of the forbidden forests." Mikan paused to take a breath, but continued before anyone else could speak. "The most powerful water Alice user will take part in the main force, the other 14 will enter the underground canals. They will have the other destruction Alice user with them and are responsible for destroying our Alice Heart."

"Damn it!" burst out the principal. "Only 5 people know about the underground canals and only Persona and I know where the Alice Heart is! Mikan are you sure they are aware of its exact location?"

"Positive."

"How the hell did they find out? Only 5- well now 6 people know about; as well as how to navigate those canals and only 3know the exact location of the Alice Heart-"

"Make that a 7 and a 4. Not including the enemies of course." Said Natsume, speaking for the first time. The principal looked at him mouth agape.

"What! How else do you think I manage to get out of the school? I discovered them once on a mission. But there are almost 0 chances of them discovering it the same way. Let it suffice to say the entrance was burned down. So this means the enemy has inside information." The principal nodded gravely.

"But Mikan how do you know all this, and how can you be sure of its authenticity?"

"I had this weird dream, then I had this vision like things, and I just _know_!"

"Alright then, I guess we have to believe you..."

"We don't have time for all this chitchat. The attacks will start sharp at 5 am. Each attack is estimated to take 15 minutes, according to their calculation." exclaimed an irate Mikan

"They don't put much faith in us do they." said Natsume dryly.

"Right. Serina I want you to gather all the DA students. The attack on the first gate consists of only 15 water Alice user's right; we'll decide how to handle the attacks when everyone is there. Natsume you are to accompany Mikan don't let her out of your sight, ever. Mikan you go write down everything you told me. Then bring it to the DA room-"

"No way! Persona-"

"Yes, I forgot about that, well there's the danger he'll hug her to death, but I'm sure she'll survive."

"Wait. What! HUG her to death? What the hell?"

"What you didn't think he was actually like that did you, acting like that is only part of his job."

"Could have fooled me."

"True he is almost disturbingly good at his job, but he isn't the way he acts, he is actually something akin to Mikan and Ruka's older brother."

"Right..." said a disbelieving Natsume.

"Anyway, forget that. Get going everyone!"

"Wait what happens to Mikan after that, I have to join the battle, and Mikan can't go out into it!"

"Just when the battle starts we will both accompany Mikan back to my chambers, where I will set up as many wards as I possibly can. My rooms already have many of them with a few more it should be impregnable."

Creator's Child and the Devils Offspring

Mikan winced as she heard a huge blast, somewhere in the distance. It was probably Persona, blowing up the offending cannon. Seeing the wince, Natsume asked "Is anything wrong?"

"No." Natsume raised an eyebrow; he seemed to give her that incredulous look a lot. As if he could read her mind, and knew exactly when she was lying.

"Well, it's just that I was told that this place was like heaven in many ways, but I never imagined there would be a war here of all place."

"Almost all the young alice users live here, as well as many other children of important personnel. You'd think this would the place MOST prone to war."

"Then they shouldn't call it a heaven."

"Sorry to break it to you Mikan, but there are wars in heaven too." They stood there for a moment in silence, both reflecting what had just been said.

"Come on, we don't have much time left."


	12. Soundless Wars

Silent Wars

A cool wind was blowing.

He didn't like this

He didn't like this one bit.

Despite knowing every little thing about the invaders- Mikan had even managed to even give a personal profile for each and every one of the fighters, including their weak points- despite this, things were rough.

They just didn't have enough people; the DA was strong; very strong; but they weren't Gods, nor were they immortals; far from it. This was only the third attack. Things were going according to plan, but he had the feeling things would start getting haywire very soon. He just knew it. He dispatched his opponent with a strong kick in the chest. He snorted at the weakness of the alice users, they had strong alice. But the academy was over a thousand times stronger, but they had numbers, and with alice, numbers and strategy was everything. The only reason they had held out for so long was because of strategy. He just hoped it would be enough. He dispatched yet another henchman with a well aimed kick at the back of the head.

He engaged another enemy alice user. He was about to send a good hard kick in his direction when he froze. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong he just couldn't put a finger on it; and then he realized, it must be Mikan, he like the idiot he was; he must have accidentally bonded with her, damn his vampire characteristics, they were welcome in many cases, but in most, they came up and bit him in the behind. He knew this could be used against him, but he himself had not known about it until now, no one else could possible know yet. This all happened in less than a second, but that second cost him dearly.

The next thing he knew, he was flying across the grounds, he cursed under his breath. Adjusting his centre of gravity, he used to power of the kick to almost literally fly in Mikan's direction. He checked nothing was broken, making sure that he did not in fact have a minor muscle tear or some such thing that would come back to haunt him later, Natsume sent a ball of fire at the man who'd kicked him, engulfing him in an inferno in seconds. He had avoided using his alice as much as he could, as had all the other DA members, so they were relatively fresh in body, especially after drinking Jinno's special recovery drink thing, he had found some respect for the man in him after that, he was no good at biology nor did he know about plants, but he did know that the drink was laced with alice too, and it was no small feat to have made so many of them, especially as he had an offence type alice. Thanks to him, they were not physically tired; only mentally so.

They all despised killing no matter how emotionless they managed to make themselves seem. A living breathing human being, with just as many people to love him elsewhere, becomes a lifeless corpse in less than seconds. Because of you.

He hated having the power to kill, the only thing that kept him from breaking down were Personna's words. All humans had the power to kill, alice was just a more advanced method, he realized he was grasping at threads, but he needed to if he was to hold himself together, at least he had, until she came along.

He respected Personna though he would never admit it, Natsume knew deep down that he was just putting on an act, to set an example, honestly, it was Personna's cruel act that held them all together. Without it they would have all broken down. And Personna had no such thing to hold on to, other than maybe the fact that he was helping them; to hold on. He just acted the way he did for the sake of it, and to keep up the act sometimes. He hadn't really been surprised when he had found out that it really was an act, but he was more surprised that his speculations were correct. The Principal had said that his acting was too good for comfort sometimes, but if it hadn't been that good, they would have fallen apart. The Principal had no idea about the dangers they faced, and Personna kept it that way because if he did know then it would be forbidden, and these dangers would be worse if left not dealt with.

Natsume had snuck into his room once, and had seen a huge pile of mission files there; sorted into DA, and Self. Under DA there were three sections. Done, to be given and unsuitable. The 'unsuitable's were stamped. Natsume saw that Personna had been personally doing the unsuitable ones, as well as many others. First when he saw the detailed files he cursed Personna for not giving them out, but when he saw the file of his last mission he realized that if he had known all that, he would have never managed to complete the mission. Even he would have been shit scared. His respect for Personna only deepened when he saw his calendar. His own missions marked in green and the DA ones in red. Natsume was shell shocked. Personna did more missions in a week than the whole of the DA put together did in a month! He hadn't been able to snoop more, but it had been enough, not only did he now respect Personna but he had a new motivation too. If Personna could do it, he would too; someday, then maybe Personna would have to do less.

Natsume didn't show any outward change in behaviour, he knew Personna well enough from long hours of training with him, training was always the best way to get to know someone, if you do it often enough you can know everything about a person and Personna and he had definitely trained 'often enough'. He knew that Personna was a lot like him, any change would make him suspicious and uncomfortable. He only treated Personna with a bit more respect when they were in class or training complained less and refused to shun him behind his back and made sure no one else did while he was there too.

Wondering about his DA mentor, he ran as fast as he could toward where Mikan was, taking down as many of the intruders as he could on his way.

Despite the raging war he couldn't help but wonder what his relationship with Mikan was, he did actually hug her to near death and was very protective of her. Natsume fully intended to propose to Mikan someday, he wasn't dumb enough not to know that he was completely head over heels for her, nor was he foolish enough to think denying it would do anything but be annoying for him, he had had this coming to him for a long time, Mikan was beautiful smart, if a bit dense and she always managed to break through his emotionless facade. She did that with everyone, but she was the only one who had ever broken his, the only one who managed to wheedle her way into his heart without him even noticing.

This war was really nothing for him, he was used to it. But protecting Mikan...

He absently wondered whether Personna would accept him...

Mikan had another horror. Her tower was under a camouflage alice, making it completely see through and so very sound proof. She heard everything as if it were happening right next to her. The groan of an enemy taken down, she saw the wordless fear and the silent scream of a man shoot down from above. She could hear as every one of her friends in the DA got hurt, and felt the pain as if it were her own wound, how she wished it were, how she wished she could take their pain be at least a little more useful. All she had done was sit and talk, it was them how were taking all the risks, and the pain.

She saw the completely expressionless faces of the ones she thought she knew so well, killing mercilessly, but she also saw their eyes. Nothing could be told from their faces in even ten glances, but if you really look, you could see, as she did, the disgust in their eyes as they took the life of another man, no second chances no redemption, just a cold corpse. So many possibilities, both good and bad, come to an end, just like that. But she also saw another fire. They _were_ disgusted by what they were doing, but they were also proud, proud to be protecting their friends, protecting so many other innocents and protecting their home, for as much like a prison it may be, it was still their home, and enough good things had happened, and happen, to cancel out the bad.

It was amazing, just how quite everything was, no sound other than burning wood, trees, grass and other things, but it was alice fire, Natsume had left his mark before moving on, gunshots were muffled. Silence was everything to the attackers and the defenders didn't make a sound, so as to keep their position secret and prevent any backup from joining.

It was no wonder that the other students woke in the morning not knowing or suspecting anything.

Such a destructive war, so many killed enemies, so many injured allies; so much destruction on the grounds, they were damaged beyond recognition yet barely a sound ensued from the battle raging below.

She just couldn't take it. She was glad Natsume wasn't there; she really wouldn't have been able to survive seeing him getting hurt.

Mikan sat and prayed, prayed that her fire using protector and friend was safe and that he would return to him whole even if harmed. She wanted to feel the special intense heat he gave out, that so enchanted her, and made her feel so safe.

That was the wrong thing to wish for. She had jinxed it herself.

In this chapter I've said a lot about Personna and Natsume's relationship.

I really don't want Personna as a bad guy so...


	13. Waiting is the Worst

Mikan knew something was wrong immediately. This heat, it was the same, but it wasn't. This was a malicious heat, not the same a Natsume's fire.

She looked down and almost fainted. She knew she was dead the moment she saw the fire. She was a trapped rat. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to run and no way what so ever to get out.

Her uncle had made sure of that. She was scared now, now she knew what it felt like being trapped and she swore she wouldn't let it happen to any other animal of she could help it. That is if she lived.

She could do nothing but pray, there was only one person in her mind, and she knew he would save her.

Natsume cursed under his breath when he saw the smoke, the intruders looked confused, the smoke was coming from literally the middle of the air. Natsume felt his blood go cold. That was where Mikan was. He cursed Mikan for being such a clumsy idiot though it couldn't have been her fault; and as an afterthought he cursed her for making him curse so much.

Luckily the others in the DA saw him and seem to focus again. Taking advantage of the distraction, they dispatched all the intruders present. He nodded at them and gestured to the rising smoke; they nodded back and sprang into action, spreading out to cover all the points of the compass.

Natsume ran to where approximately the door should be. Blinded by the smoke he grouped around for the handle, belatedly he remembered that the principal had used a stupid and fancy alice to make sure no one could enter without invitation. He just hoped that a plea for help would be enough.

It turned out that it was. Natsume thanked his lucky stars for his vampire characteristics at that point. The fact that he didn't have to breath helped a lot with all the smoke which was probably poisonous, his vision was a huge bonus too. These small little things were what made him so different, he barely noticed them, but when he did he realized how much stronger and how much less venerable he was than a regular human, and what would have happened if he hadn't been so.

Natsume reached the stairs and grimaced the whole thing was on fire, he braced himself, and forced his mind to make his legs move, he knew that the fire wouldn't hurt him, but tell that to his instincts. Focusing ahead and on Mikan he ran. He had his hands out, touching the walls of the staircase; he only opened his eyes when he felt the walls come to an end. He sighed in relief as he saw Mikan was mostly unharmed at the centre of the chamber, but immediately regretted doing so as it meant he inhaled a lungful of the smoke. Miraculously none of the smoke or the fire had reached Mikan yet. Natsume guessed she had passed out from shock. Picking her up he realized that he had a huge dilemma on his hands; he could survive not breathing for a good five minutes as well as the direct heat of the flames, but not Mikan.

He cursed yet again at the inconvenience she posed; she would surely be the death of him. Suddenly it stuck him, the tower couldn't be completely closed off, it had to have windows or something, or else, where would she get the oxygen from. He thought for a second that it might be another of the principal's fancy alices, but he decided to try anyway. There was not much else he could do; he wouldn't even be able to dent the glass.

Laying Mikan on the floor of the circular chamber gain, and started grouping around, as he thought about, there had to be windows, or at least ventilation, or the smoke wouldn't have been able to escape. Fuelled by this thought, he began to search the wall with more vigour. He'd gone over the walls over 5 times when suddenly he felt an updraft against his hands. Finally! He sighed in relief, it no fire or smoke had entered, but it was getting hotter, and he didn't know how much more Mikan could take.

He gathered Mikan up in his arms carrying her so that he blocked off as much of her as he could from the outer atmosphere. Fifty to sixty meters high, no sane human would try this; Though Natsume _was_ desperate, he was completely sane; but he wasa vampire too. As he braced himself he felt Mikan snuggle closer to, muttering, at least she felt safe.

He certainly didn't. His name formed by her lips as well as the words that followed it were lost on the wind as Natsume jumped.

To those looking up he looked like a descending angle, and then, just as quick, he was gone with the wind.

Natsume ran faster than he had ever tried to run before, he flew like the wind.

"Natsume," muttered Mikan, waking up. "NATSUME!" she screamed as she became aware of her surroundings, scared she buried her face into his chest. "Tch. Noisy" he replied to cover the blush he knew was creeping up his cheeks. Mikan humped in reply.

"Wh-where are we going?" she asked hesitantly, still queasy and unused to the pace at which Natsume was travelling.

"I'm taking you to the dorms you should be safe enough there."

"What about you?"

"I'll go back to the fight." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and it was, not that it made things any better, Mikan bit back a reply.

They travelled the rest of the way in silence.

In a few seconds, Natsume alighted on a window sill. "This is my room, it is protected, at least more than yours. You'll be safe enough; it's our main priority to keep invaders away from the dorms." He sighed, "I know I said you would be safe, but knowing it's you..." he trailed off, Mikan gave another indignant huff.

"Just stay where you are okay. Please just don't get yourself into a mess again." He looked at Mikan for a long time before the turned to leave, only to have her call him back. He looked back at her.

"Promise me."

"What?"

"Just promise me!" she said again, a note of despair entering into her voice. Natsume's eyes bored into her.

"Alright. What?" Mikan sighed relieved.

"Promise me that you'll come back in one piece and that as soon as you've recovered you'll take me to central town for lunch and buy me a box of hallown." As Mikan looked up at him she could have sworn she saw a hint of a smile on his face before he turned away again. Mikan held her breath.

"Alright then little girl. We have a deal."

With that he leapt of the frame, back into a battle where Mikan wouldn't know anything of him. Mikan wished dearly she was back in her tower, then at least she could keep track of him but now...

Waiting is always the worst.

She sometimes thought that Natsume and all had it easy. She sighed and snuggled herself deep into his bed, where he had left her, hugging his pillow close to her, breathing in as much of his scent as she could as she waited convincing herself that he would be back before she knew it, that he would be next to her in no time. Then maybe things would go back to normal.

Waiting really was the worst.

Two updates in one day! :D

So how was it?


	14. Heartfelt

The breeze ruffled the sheets in Natsume's special star room. Not an unusual thing, usually, but today was no usual day.

Natsume knew something was wrong the instant she stepped out of the dorm. The bond was useful, but that didn't make the situation any better. He dealt a fatal blow to the man he was battling and ran toward Mikan's presence.

Mikan was alone and unprotected, her star level was all too clearly shown on her uniform, which she had changed into before the attack started. Natsume wished that she hadn't. It meant that the enemy new she was a valuable hostage, the golden stars shone brightly in contrast to the silver moonlight. A man raised is gun.

As gracefully as any swan, Natsume threw himself in front of Mikan, creating a small fire to burn the bullet, he had miscalculated the flame. Or rather he had not taken the type of bullet into account in his calculation. The bullet had been filled with acid so naturally the fire only made it worse. It continued on its course and the deadly liquid found its way straight to his eyes. He reflexively closed his eyes. Perhaps he wouldn't lose his eyesight permanently, but he was certainly blinded now. He moved toward the presence that he knew was Mikan. He shielded her with his body and gathered his power to release a cold flame a true inferno from hell itself. It travelled like a hurricane with Natsume and Mikan as the eye. The flame burned everything it touched to a cinder. But it like its creator knew the difference between enemies and allies.

The flame washed over the other DA members like water, refreshing and energising them, leaving the school buildings untouched.

The DA members collapsed to the ground gratefully. All the enemies were dead.

Natsume sank deeper into Mikan's embrace, he was exhausted after using so much power, he was glad he wasn't coughing up blood.

He felt Mikan move him away from her slightly and he felt her eyes on him. Shockingly he heard her scream in despair, and then she was crying into his shirt. Dazed, he belatedly remembered that he probably looked like death itself now, and it wasn't the best idea to let Mikan see him in the state he was in, but it was too late for that now. He gathered her into an embrace whispering to her.

The ground started to shake.

Natsume cursed. They had completely forgotten...

Mikan held on to Natsume for dear life. He looked awful and he would probably lose his eyesight, and even if he didn't he wouldn't see like he had been able to before. And it was all her fault. If only she hadn't been so foolish and reckless. If only she had just listened to him. If only she could have been more patient.

The ground was shaking now. It was scary, but she didn't care. She held Natsume refusing to let go, wallowing in self pity and guilt. She hated this war. She wished this attack hadn't happened. She wished that there was no threat to the academy. She wished with all her heart that the enemy and the people helping them attack would just drop dead; she wished that Natsume and the others weren't hurt; she wished they didn't have to fight. She wished that it could be as if the war had never taken place; that the members of the DA didn't have to deal with the guilt of taking a life alone. It just wasn't fair; above all she wished that others' would at least appreciate the academy's heroes. She was still crying into Natsume's shirt. She hated it when he got hurt, hated the fact that his alice ate through his life force, and she hated it above all that she could do nothing about it. She hadn't really thought about it before, but now she did she knew that she loved him, completely and unconditionally. And she wanted to help him, she wanted to at least ease his pain, or even transfer it to herself if need be. She would do anything to be with him.

And so she wished with all her heart.

Her embrace was like a vice, trapping Natsume, giving him no escape. He could breathe, but just barely so but he could, and so he didn't mind, in fact he liked it. He loved the feel of her embrace, the feel of her in his arms, and the fact that she had worried made his heart—as well as his pride— swell.

Natsume felt a lot better. On instinct he opened his eyes, both of them, to find them perfectly fine; looking over his body he found that all his wounds had been healed, and that he felt at peace, even after having killed so many. Around him, the others were coming to the same realization too.

A final tremor ran through the ground before that too was completely still.

Natsume drew Mikan closer to him; he had felt a great stir of emotion in her, it had been so great that it could have had the power to move a mountain- and it had, hypothetically- as well as something else just as strong, if not stronger.

Around them they saw the grounds return to their usual state though the alices embedded into it were completely drained of power as they had drawn on the strength reserved in them during the fight to keep themselves going.

They had no idea what power had caused this, but they just lay on the grass where they were. There was a great unknown power in their midst, one that they could never take on, even if they hadn't been so badly injured, but they didn't really care. It had helped them so much. Surely it was a friendly power. The only emotions they felt were relief and gratitude. Above all, they felt safe, and they knew that everyone else was safe too, that was the greatest blessing.

Only the Principal was worried.

He was worried nearly out of his wits for the welfare of his niece.

He knew she was safe but... how long would that safety last...


	15. Just a Wish upon a Myth

It was the end last exam before the holidays.

They had been a piece of cake for her.

Usually she wouldn't score well, but that was only because she would wonder off to dreamland when studying. Her mother had gotten tired of it, and had said that if she didn't do well, she wouldn't be allowed to go to the fire festival with Natsume. She loved the feel of the fire in the actual ceremony. She always had her special space next to Natsume. The first time she had attended the festival she had been between Natsume and Aoi, but the year after, Youichi had come with her, so she had been between her brother and Natsume; but she was always next to Natsume.

She had begged Natsume to help her, and he had taken her request quite to heart, he had worked her to near death at first, then he realised what she needed, so they had started studying together and Natsume would give her a sharp rap on the head when he thought her mind was starting to wonder.

Though it was troublesome and distracting, Natsume, being the genius he was had no problem.

He always was second in class though, after Hotaru. But Hotaru's intelligence was so great it was considered out worldly. It was obvious that no one would beat her unless she missed an exam, which was not going to happen. So in Hotaru's class, second was considered first.

After all: 'First the worst, Second the best'.

Though honestly, 'Zero the Hero, First the Worst' was better suited to the way Natsume actually acted in class. He wasn't as considerate to those who weren't his friends.

The bell would ring in soon to signal the end of the biology paper, and then she would rush out to meet Natsume and the others. This time Ruka would be coming too! The date for the festival wasn't fixed, and this time it had fallen on the 28th two days after the end of exams, they would be missing the usual end of school feast, but she didn't mind at all. Her mind wondered to the dream she had had last night.

It had been almost two years since the battle. The after effects of what she had seen had been awful; she would wake up screaming every night. She wouldn't have been able to pull through without Natsume. It had taken almost 8 months for the dreams to stop completely, and it had been a year since she had had such a dream.

She would have to tell Natsume about it later. Maybe the subjects for the examination had caused it, biology and history together. This year they had studied the genetic transfer of alice and vampires in detail, the test focused more on vampires, and she was sure to ace all those questions, though some of them had made her blush profusely. She had thought of Natsume through the whole paper thinking how unfair it was that he didn't have to study at all, but then she reasoned there might have been things he didn't know about himself, information about vampires was not very prevalent, and then she realised that she hadn't really needed to study. She imagined how the others especially Natsume would react when answering the questions especially the more 'awkward' ones as she waited for the bell signalling the end of the exams to ring.

Figuring out Natsume's feelings didn't prove much of a challenge. He would be annoyed, at the questions and at the thought of how the other girls would react to the questions.

She soon got bored again and looked out the window, at the cherry tree. It had stopped blooming. All the other trees around it were in full bloom, but not 'their' tree. She felt a great sense of loss; the tree had been through so much with her since she entered the academy; and with Natsume too; for much longer.

She felt something on her check, she was about the brush it off, but then she realised it was an eyelash. That meant a wish; she didn't really believe in it, but then when there was alice then why not wish granting eyelashes too? She decided to try anyway.

Just then the bell rang.

Mikan rushed out and almost collided into Natsume who was waiting for her out side. They had been sorted into different classes for the exams this time; things were different now, since this was their last year in the junior school section. One more term and they would move to the middle school section.

"Watch it little girl."

"Oh come on Natsume what's with the grumpy mood! The exams are over !"

Natsume sighed. "You know- "

"Yes, yes it doesn't make a difference to you either way." Natsume rolled his eyes. "Where're the others?" continued Mikan.

"Our transportation isn't here yet mother called to say it would be an hour or so late."

"I see. So can we go to our sakura tree? Please!" A small smile graced Natsume's face at her use of 'our'. He gestured his acceptance and started walking out in the direction of the tree.

When he reached the tree however, he stopped dead his eyes wide. Mikan who had been running behind him crashed into him. "Don't stop like that!" she wined and rushed forward to come level with him, and then she too stopped to gape at the sight, their sakura tree which had been barren for the last year, the same tree that hadn't had a single blossom on it the very same morning was in full bloom.

Mikan ran forward twirling around among the fallen petals laughing. "This is great! My wish came true!" she sang, leaving Natsume standing there.

It took Natsume a while to fully comprehend the significance of what she had said. When it did, he didn't like it one bit, someone would have a lot of questions to answer.

"Mikan!" he called to her. "I have some work to do; I shouldn't take more than half an hour. Get some lunch for me when you get yours would you. And stay here otherwise alright, so I can find you." That was just an excuse, he would know where she was at any given time or place, but still, he had a bad feeling, and he wanted to be completely sure she wouldn't wonder off straight into the open arms of trouble and danger like she usually did.

"Okay." Replied Mikan, "I promise." She added seeing to look of worry in Natsume's eyes. She knew him too well to bother trying to pry any answers from him; she knew he would keep his secrets until he was ready to tell.

11.11.11 11:11 pm 1111words (I made sure I would finish at that specific time ;D )


	16. The Helpless Stubborn and Determined

The high school principal was surprised. He was in the situation he least expected to be, and that rarely happened to him. He was extremely organised and for a busy man like him, his timing had to be impeccable, Natsume's unexpected appearance changed that though. He had about fifteen minutes of extra time, but the look in Natsume's eyes made him doubt that it would be a short encounter; and the same look made him wish dearly that he could escape.

"I need answers."

"About?"

"Don't kid me. You know every well that I mean Mikan, so talk."

"I still don't understand." the principal said, feigning ignorance. Natsume replied with a low growl. His eyes narrowed further in annoyance. The principal sighed; he wouldn't be able to get out of this mess.

"Look this isn't my secret to tell, it is that of her parent's; well that of her mother's now. All I can say is that a certain alice she inherited evolved, which was completely unexpected. He didn't even know it was possible for the alice to evolve so far..." the principal continued starting to ramble, looking back into his memories. Though Natsume's eyes made him snap his mouth shut in less than a second, he comforted himself by thinking that it was impossible for Natsume to make anything out from his words.

Looking closer he realised that he had under estimated the boy; he had made something out of what he had said.

"You're kidding me that... that's not possible! To have that much power..." Natsume's eyes went from wide from shock, back to narrow. "And she doesn't know!" the principal nodded. "That's madness! What if she uses her powers by mistake and-" Natsume shook his head. "All alices have a price, energy; an equal exchange. An alice as powerful as that cannot be one without a price. It's impossible. It could kill her. Just one thoughtless wish that would be all it takes! All it takes to kill her!"

"First tell me how you caught on."

"I felt something stir in her on the day off the battle-"

"You bonded her?"

"Yes how else did you think I managed to protect her at all in the battle, it would have been impossible!"

"Your other senses..."

"...Would be on overdrive, too many diversions for me to focus on one thing."

"Well to tell you the truth, her power was sealed before. But because of her father's death she broke her seal in her grief, unknowingly of course. "

"The mass collapse..."

"Yes. Then she used her power as you pointed out, during the battle. She must have wished very strongly, to put the grounds back to their usual shape..."

"And heal all the DA members and give me back my sight as well as a whole host of other things too."

"I see. Well after that her mother came rushing over, but without the King, it was impossible to seal Mikan's power again, so her mother decided it would remain a secret, she was adamant about her decision."

"That's madness and you know it. It's amazing she even survived this long. You have no idea what her alice's power source is."

"I know but her mother was shaken after losing her husband... she was in shock that her daughter had been in such danger. As a matter of fact, you were the only thing that stopped her from pulling Mikan out of the academy. I thought I would wait for her to calm down and try to convince her otherwise, but every time I tried she blew her top."

"Do you realize that she survived this long only and only because she was completely content. That too is only because after being in complete hell, the smallest things can seem great... Now that effect has worn off, she'll start wishing unconsciously again and that could be disastrous for her as well as others."

"That'll have to be up to you now and her other friends; to keep her happy."

"You don't get my point!" shouted Natsume. "We all wish something or the other every day: 'I wish I could have some ice-cream.' 'I wish Jinno won't come today' 'I wish annoying Serina and her biology lessons would just disappear.'"

"All are completely innocent wishes, but as hers all of these wishes would come true, and her simple wishes could spoil a whole life! Or even kill. The last wish I mentioned is a perfect example. It's not as if she would want Serina to actually disappear, but she wouldn't want to have the bio class and her wish would depend on her wordings wouldn't it." The principal's face was paling visibly.

"Gods Natsume I wanted to ignore all that as long as possible but... The plain fact is that I can't do a single thing, when it comes to Mikan I'm powerless in front of my sister-in-law. I have the right to give my opinion but that's about it. I can't do a thing when she is being so thick headed." He sighed. "Where do you think Mikan gets it from..." he added muttering. It didn't make a dent on Natsume's serious visage though. "Go back to her Natsume. Do your best to prevent any disasters, meanwhile I'll try and think of another way. No we can't tell her mother she found out herself, she would realize immediately, despite Mikan being the great actress she is."

"Alright. Wait; Mikan... Actress?" exclaimed Natsume confused.

"You'd be surprised; though you seem to be the only one who she can't— or won't fool. Now go back to Mikan we can't do anything more now. Besides I have a meeting."

The principal sighed after Natsume left, now he would have to explain to Yuka, it shouldn't be too difficult, Natsume _had_ found out himself, but that wouldn't stop her venting her anger on him. She had a heavy burden now without the late king...

At least he wouldn't be late for the meeting after all...

Not that that was much compensation.

He looked out the window and watched Mikan jump to welcome Natsume. Something looked different; it took him a while to notice what it was.

The cherry tree was in full bloom, where as in the morning he it had had not a single bud on it.

Natsume of course would have noticed this immediately, for more reasons than he knew.

The two were connected in more ways than they knew.

The principal sighed, it had been prophesied that the foretold would hate each other. And there was no doubt now that Mikan was the foretold girl, and Natsume's parents had known he was the foretold boy since the day he 'awoke' as a vampire.

There was no doubt. It was a small comfort, but a comfort none the less; that the prophecy wasn't the ultimatum. But it woke a cold fear within him, what if they started hating each other latter. That would be disastrous. They shared a bond far deeper than just friendship, Natsume had even bound himself to Mikan, and if they broke apart now their hearts would break too, whether they knew it or not.

Trouble, trouble and more trouble, the story of his life; alices caused far, far more strife than they were worth.

He was helpless, Yuka was stubborn. It was a standstill, a stale mate of sorts.

But the principal had forgotten his knight, or more accurately Mikan's knight.

Natsume was the determined.


	17. This Moment

First day of High School

Mikan stared out the window waiting for class to start. Suddenly she found Natsume there staring up at her. He moved his head to the side saying something. Getting up she went to open the window, but not sooner than she had, Natsume had jumped up onto the sill and into the class. He was already in his seat, next to her when she had recovered from her shock.

"Natsume!" she cried indignantly. He looked at her. Sighing she gave up. "Why do always have to do that." He smirked up at her.

"Why aren't you used to it yet?" Mikan rolled her eyes. She laid her head against Natsume's shoulder. She savoured the feeling, surprised that he hadn't pushed her away. It was amazing how close they had gotten; he never pushed her away now. He would keep his secrets, but he would always tell her later. They weren't a couple, yet, but she couldn't help but want to be. She new Natsume now, and he was an amazing person through and through; even if she had hated him in the beginning. But she didn't want to be greedy and lose what she had.

"First day of High School huh. Time sure flies."

"Hmm."

"Natsume?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think will happen this year?"

"Probably a lot." Mikan giggled at his remark and he sent a small smile her way. He loved her smiling face.

"Come on, time to go."

That night Mikan dreamed. A vivid dream, she was in a forest, a forest of sakura trees. The blossom was all around her, dancing in the wind and she was dancing with the petals, laughing as she danced with the wind.

Then she saw Natsume, standing there, watching her, smiling, as she twirled with the wind. Smiling she ran up to him and flew into his arms.

She wouldn't have done this normally. She didn't know what she would have done 'normally', she was intoxicated with the happiness of the place, she didn't care, she just wanted to dance, she would do whatever came to her mind.

"I love you!" she muttered quietly giggling, but she meant every word. Natsume look surprised at that, but she felt his arms tighten around her.

"I love you too." As soon as the last syllable left his mouth, he seemed to explode into a shower cherry blossom, engulfing her completely, she felt as distinct apprehension, but she felt safe.

But then it was gone. The trees around her were completely bare, looking melancholy. The happiness in the air was gone, leaving a deep instinctive fear. And so was Natsume.

Mikan ran and ran, screaming his name, he had said he would be there for her, and she needed him right now, she was scared out of her wits. Something was wrong, the air tasted putrid to her and she didn't like it one bit.

And then she saw him, he was lying there on the ground. A short laugh escaped her as she ran up to him, but it got caught in her throat.

Lying there in front of her was Natsume, hurt almost beyond recognition. His uniform was covered with blood; she could see his shredded flesh through his equally shredded shirt. One eye was forced shut with blood covering it completely; the other stared up at her blank, unseeing.

She woke screaming bloody murder.

Natsume was in her room in an instant. Seeing him, she launched herself at him, her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs clamped around his waist like a vice.

"Oh God! Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god! Natsume! It seemed so real! I hated it! Please don't! Don't ever leave me! I- I love you, I love you too much, please don't leave, don't ever leave me! Don't- Don't let me see you like that! Please!"

She hadn't meant to say those words, she had meant to never say them to him at all, but it all flowed out of her like a gushing river. She was shocked and scared out of her wits.

Natsume's answers would only serve to shock her more.

"Shhh! I'm right here!"

"But you won't be! You'll have to go off on some mission and you always end up getting hurt! And then you'll leave me-"

"Now why would I want to do that? Huh! I-" his voice flattered slightly, becoming softer. "I love you more than anything else in the world, and I'll do anything to keep you safe, and I can't leave you to do-"

"Exactly, you always protect me, and end up getting hurt yourself! I don't care how much I get hurt myself, but seeing you hurt... Oh God! If I saw you like I saw you then, I- I wouldn't be able to take it!"

"I love you Mikan, and I'll do anything for you, and making sure I don't get hurt isn't that hard."

"You promise, not to get hurt, not to leave me?"

"You shouldn't even have to ask that polka." Mikan's sobbing had subsided and she let out a soft giggle.

"I missed that. I love you Natsume, you're the best thing I have in this world." Her words made his hear flutter, but the grimace on his face only deepened. It was near impossible for him not to get hurt, though he would try, he wasn't into self deterioration, but he would have to be doubly careful now, he never ever wanted to see Mikan in the state she was in before, it would kill him.

As for not leaving her, he would rather die than do so, but sometimes you just had to do things, but he made a promise to the girl he loved, to the girl who loved him back, and he would do whatever he had to, to keep it.

He couldn't seem to worry more, even though he should, Mikan lay curled up against him, his own limbs wrapped around her petite form, just as her limbs were around his body.

She seemed to fit perfectly into him, as if she completed him -in more than just mind- which she did.

He was completely at peace with his angel curled up against him.

Mikan stirred next to him, sighing peacefully.

"You know Natsume, I wish we could stay like this, just freeze this moment and stay in it forever..."

And just like that, his tranquillity vanished completely.

Sorry for the impossibly late update. I had a humongous writer's block which I just couldn't overcome. I know what's coming next in the story, but I just don't know how to get there anymore!

But I'm back on track now, and so I should be updating more often for my readers (if I have any...)


	18. Granma's Sayings

"Take that back Mikan! Take it back now!" He said the last part in a whisper. He saw the light in Mikan's eyes dampen at that, looking hurt. "You don't want that Mikan, not really, imagine all the things you'd be missing out on! Growing up; seeing the sakura blossom grow, heck if we stay in this moment you won't be able to see another spring festival; you won't see your family or anyone else for that matter, just me!"

"Well I wouldn't mind the last bit, but I don't think I could survive without the other... You're right I do take that back." She said snuggling up closer to him, she could feel his chest vibrate as he chuckled, but here was no humour in it.

"Remember Mikan, be careful what you wish for, be very careful. The saying isn't just a grandma's saying, it applies to you more than anything else really."

"Alright. I'll remember that, but really 'grandma's saying'?" she said grinning.

"Oh come on you're not really going to hold that against me!"

"No; of course not! I was just commenting on it!" There was silence for a while.

"You know something don't you. You're worried." It wasn't a question, it was a statement; one that made Natsume tense slightly. "Don't worry, I'll let you keep your secrets. Just make sure you tell me some day." She added, squirming still closer to him.

Natsume smiled down at her curled up form, planting a soft kiss on the crown of her head.

"You are going to aren't you." She smiled up innocently at him, earning a soft chuckle.

But still made a move to leave, untangling their entwined limbs.

"Please don't go!" Natsume chuckled again.

"I won't but I'll need to leave early in the morning for training with Persona."

"If you must. Tell him I said hi and give him my love."

"I still haven't gotten over that."

"Oh come on now! It's old news."

"Fine! But I am not giving him your love." Mikan pouted.

"But why not?"

"Because that belongs only to me!" Mikan laughed softly.

"I love you with all my heart Natsume, but persona is like my brother!"

"Too bad, you can give him love, but I'm not giving him any from my share."

"Really Natsume you're so stubborn sometimes! You know I love you."

"Yes I know that you love me." He said getting I light punch from Mikan as retaliation,

"I love you, not your ego."

"Sorry dear, it's a package."

"I know, unfortunately. I'm having second thoughts."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding silly! It's not like you to be so gullible."

"What can I say; I lose my footing when it comes to you." Mikan laughed softly again as they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"I love you Mikan, I can't lose you."

"I love you Natsume, you won't lose me but I can't bear to see you hurt."

"We've got ourselves into quite a fix haven't we...?"

"Yes, quite a pleasant one though."

"Can't argue with that."


	19. Story information hiatus note etc

҉҉.The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.

Hey readers.

As you can see, the story has pretty much come to a standstill.

I will not be splitting it up into more than one story/ book etc, but I have decided that it will have a major revamp and will be uploaded most probably on a site called wattpad.

I may or may not upload it here too, the only thing is, on wattpad it's easier to see the response to your story and it offers a copyright.

Major differences will be that it most probably will not be a fan fiction any more, but an original story, as that was my original idea, however at the time I hadn't discovered wattpad, so I turned the entire thing into a FF

Please do check it out. I will definitely be uploading the links to the story on wattpad on Fan Fiction.

I'd really appreciate it if you could check it out, and it would be worth getting an account on wattpad too…

Hopefully I'll see you'll again soon

P.S My pen name there is RapidWaters

Thanks

M.A.P.

҉҉.The Creator's Child and The Devil's Offspring ҉҉.


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